Chantilly Lace
by carsly
Summary: Marinette never had good luck, even after she became Ladybug. She is just trying to live her life, balancing being a normal girl and a superhero, when she suddenly finds that she and Chat Noir have turned into Paris's most wanted over night. Things just aren't adding up. Choices must be made. Nothing will be the same again...LadyNoir/Marichat/Adrienette. Romance/Mystery/Comedy
1. Chapter 1 : Silk

Chapter 1

Paris is famous for it's beauty, culture and history. It's been the jewel in the crown of Europe for the last thousand years or so, but to Marinette it was simply the place she called home. She couldn't deny how special it is, but still Paris isn't all it's cracked up to be. Most of the streets are covered in litter, packed with tourists and most streets smelled like either piss or pollution.

But it was her home and she was going to protect it.

From anyone.

* * *

Marinette had given up on trying to ignore the regular 3am slam of the front door of her family's apartment.

It was the fate of a baker to wake up painfully early to get ready for the 6am rush. Why couldn't people come in later in the day, or perhaps just come at a more saintly morning hour to bother her family's business. Her father told her to be thankful that so many people regularly came to their bakery.

And she was thankful, that every morning there was a line outside their door waiting for them to open, but Marinette could rarely go back to sleep after hearing the front door slam closed.

She rolled over, pulling her bed sheets closer to her body, trying not to wake Tikki. She pulled her phone out from under her pillow and pressed the power button, wincing as the bright light blinded her.

3:02am on the dot.

She turned her phone back off and slid it under her sheets, out of sight. Grabbing her pillow, she cradled it tightly in her arms. Sleep, think of sleeping thoughts and you won't lay awake again for hours.

She lay there for what seemed like days listening to Tikki's soft breathing next to her but she just couldn't fall back to sleep.

The thought of getting out of bed at 3am on a school day made her want to cry, especially since the weather was starting to turn colder and colder as the summer weather passed. She could feel the chill of the morning on her cheek and the tip of her nose. Her blankets offered her warmth and protection, but they couldn't comfort the irritation of lying in bed wide-awake.

She groaned as she pulled the blankets off her body and felt her warmth evaporate away, replaced with biting cold. She tried not to disturb Tikki as she climbed out of her nest of blankets but it was no use, she saw one tiny blue eye crack open.

"Marinette?" Tikki moaned, "What's wrong?" She didn't bother looking up at Marinette as she climbed down the ladder of her loft bed.

"It's nothing Tikki, go back to sleep." Marinette whispered, holding in a gasp as she placed her bare foot on the cold wooden floor. Frantic, she looked around for slippers or a pair socks, anything to protect her from the cold bite of the wood flooring.

She could hear the fairy shift and sigh, and then the return of her deep breathing.

Marinette felt the smile grow on her face as she pulled on a pair of socks and slipped her feet into a pair of slippers. The bedroom lit up by the full moon, casting long shadows over her floor. She started to look for a pair of pants and a sweater, trying not to wake her Kwami again.

Sometimes she wished she had her old life again, having privacy was nice but she was glad the Kwami came into her life. Even if she hogged the pillow at night and was often offering unsolicited advice, but still, having someone in her life that knew everything about her regular and secret life comforted Marinette in moments like this. That indeed she was a superhero and that she was the pride of Parisians everywhere.

She reminded herself that over and over again as she pulled on her thickest sweater and pulled her hair back, closing the hatch to her room as gently as she could to not wake Tikki.

I am Ladybug.

She pulled her sweater tighter to her body and descended the stairs slowly, letting loose a yawn.

I am Ladybug, loved by all of Paris.

She pulled the front door closed as softly as she could.

I am a superhero. I can handle this.

She slapped herself a few times on the cheeks and opened the back door to the bakery, blinded by the bright light of the kitchen.

Her father stared back at her, a sleepy haze over his face until his recognition flashed in his eyes and they become clear, a sleepy smile broking out onto his face.

"Good morning sweetheart! Came to help your old dad out again?"

"You know it, want some coffee?"

"Yes. Yes please."

* * *

She couldn't help the yawn that erupted from her mouth for a third time. She could feel the early morning rise take it's toll on her. She hadn't gone to bed at the earliest time last night, she was up till midnight working on some last minute homework that she had neglected over the weekend.

She placed her head on her desk and felt the cold wood bite back at her warm skin. She was wearing her warmest, albeit ugly, sweater she owned. A black, over sized thing with a high turtleneck that she could hide her face and flour caked clothes with. The bakery had been busier than she had ever seen before when she opened the doors this morning. Busy enough she didn't have time to change into clean clothes but just enough time to change into her ugliest sweater.

She groaned and pulled her turtleneck further up to hide her face.

Just her luck.

More of her classmates came into the room and said good morning, but all she could muster in response was propping her head up on the desk with her hand and offering a weak smile and wave. She really wasn't feeling her usual chipper self, stifling a fourth yawn.

For a hero with the power of luck Marinette figured that some of that luck would have transferred over to her to her civilian self. Marinette had never been lucky, and she figured she would never be.

She closed her eyes and tried to resist the urge to put her head down and take a nap when she heard his voice.

Her heart quickened, and she cursed herself for being so easily manipulated by her crush.

Nino and Adrien entered the classroom together. Marinette recognized immediately that Adrien was wearing the featured jacket from his father's Fall line. It was the most beautiful shade of maroon that made his blond hair glow like a halo over his face, and made his bright green eyes pop. And the detailing on the jacket's seams was enough to make her cry, let alone the way it fit him. She was almost too distracted by it's fine tailoring to notice that Adrien had spoken to her.

"Good morning Marinette." He smiled at her, and it was enough to make Marinette's whole body blush. She resisted the urge to sit straight up and pull the collar all the way up to cover her whole face.

"Go-Good morning." She stuck her hands in-between her thighs to keep them from shaking. Her knee began to bounce and she slammed her hand down on it to stop her fidgeting.

She was so caught up in herself that she didn't notice Adrien take his seat in front of her.

Again, she had lost her chance again to talk to Adrien due to her own body's ridiculous reaction to his stupid, beautiful face.

She groaned under her breath and pulled her collar up to hide her face, resting her head in her arms on her desk, hiding from the rest of the world. She already wishing the day was over and back in bed.

"Dear God Marinette, what are you wearing?"

Marinette's body quickly shut down from the high of seeing Adrien, and a knot of dread formed in her stomach. She had hoped Chloe wouldn't have noticed just how ugly her sweater was, but hope just wasn't going to cut it this morning.

"Just leave me alone Chloe."

Ever since she become Ladybug, Marinette didn't let Chloe walk all over her like she used to. But that didn't stop Chloe from trying to assert herself over Marinette, every day, ruthlessly.

"What's wrong Marinette? Too tired from sleeping in an alleyway to fight back this time?" Marinette didn't bother looking up at Chloe. "Obviously that's where you found a homeless man wearing that awful sweater, you had to steal it off his back huh? Pathetic." Chloe laughed.

Marinette had full intention to just keep ignoring Chloe until she got bored and left her alone, or the teacher came into the room, whatever came first. But Marinette suddenly heard a crash and her eyes snapped open and looked at Chloe.

The first thing she noticed was that Chloe was wearing the female version of Adrien's jacket, in that same beautiful shade of maroon that looked suddenly less like a plum color to old blood. The second thing she noticed is that Chloe's face was curled into a satisfied smile. Third thing she noticed was that her bag had been knocked over and spilled open on the bottom floor of the steps.

Marinette's first reaction was tears, but she held them and let fury replaced them.

"Go collect your hobo stuff, you're offending my poor Adrien's eyes!" Chloe brushed past Marinette and sat herself down next to Adrien, grabbing his arm and snuggling close against him.

The classroom was dead silent, and made no move to help Mariette pick up her stuff. Slowly she slid out from behind her desk and walked down the stairs and started to collect her things. Her body burned from embarrassment and fury. Fury at Chloe, at herself for not standing up for herself and punching Chloe in the face, and at everyone else for not doing anything.

But it hurt too, because Adrien hadn't said a word.

As Marinette zipped up her backpack she looked up at Adrien. He was looking back at her with pity in those green eyes, but made no move to shove Chloe off his arm and help her.

She bit back the tears that threatened to come back and went back to her seat, making sure to put her bag out of Chloe's wrath.

The pit in her stomach threatened to swallow her alive and the class erupted into whispers about what had just happened. Chloe started to say something to Adrien, about how much better she was then Marinette, but Marinette didn't listen. She clenched her fists and held back the sob that threatened to come out.

"Whoah, girl are you okay?"

Marinette's stomach unclenched and she loosened her fists. She swallowed back the tears the best she could and tried to talk to her best friend as calmly as possible.

"Not really, Chloe has already started off being a royal jerk this morning." Marinette glared at the back of platinum blonde's head.

Alya laughed, obviously in a good mood. Marinette couldn't help feeling better when she saw her smile, even if she still could bust out in tears at any moment.

"Well, that's to be expected, she is a royal pain in the ass. But I have some great news!" Alya reached into her bag and pulled out her cellphone, pulling up an email and shoved it into Marinette's hands.

"I've been invited to become a intern reporter at the news station!" Alya shouted, and suddenly the whole class was listening to their conversation and erupted into a confused chatter.

Everyone got out of their seats and rushed over to their desk, eager to ask questions.

"What's so great about that? I can be on TV whenever I want!" Chloe huffed, but around her everyone ignored her. She squealed, pulling an uncomfortable looking Adrien closer to her. He smiled meekly at her and tried to get her to let go of him.

"Whoa, Alya that's amazing!" Mariette shouted over the questions of her classmates, looking at the email, which just consisted of large words saying 'Congratulations!' for the most part. Excitement for her best friend over took her sadness and distracted her from her own heartache.

"That is so awesome! Does this mean you're going to be on TV?" Nino grabbed her shoulders from behind and gave her a thumb's up.

"Maybe," She grinned back at him and winked at him, taking her cellphone back from Marinette. "I'm the youngest intern they've ever had but they were so impressed with the Ladyblog that they offered me to make my own segment for the news!"

Everyone around them erupted into wows and cheers, but Marinette suddenly didn't feel so happy anymore. Panic for her friend and her secret identity was suddenly the only thing that she could think about. Alya was ruthless about finding out her identity already with just her cellphone and her blog, which had already resulted in some close calls. But a whole news channel giving her high tech resources and the means to expose her to all of Pairs in a matter of seconds? That didn't sound so great for Ladybug or Marinette.

"Wait, Alya. Is this safe? Are you sure, you are already so busy-"

The bell cut off Marinette's sentence and the class groaned and filed back to their desks as the teacher entered the classroom, shouting for everyone to take their seats and pull out their books.

Chloe unglued herself from Adrien's arm and blew a kiss at him as she took her seat across from to him.

Marinette, to overwhelmed at everything that had happened before 8am, that she didn't notice when Adrien glanced back at her with sorry eyes.

* * *

"Ugh, Nino I feel awful."

"I know bro, what you did was awful." Nino took another bite out of his sandwich, the two stood at the curb waiting for Gorilla to pick Adrien up for lunch.

"Like bro, did you see her face when she looked at you!?" Nino swallowed the bite of his sandwich and took another large bite, "I would have been crushed if I was her! And you totally didn't even make a move to help her."

When Nino talked with his mouth full of food it normally disgusted Adrien, but this time his own self-hatred distracted him from his best friends poor manners.

"I couldn't just shove Chloe off me Nino! You know she was my first friend-" Adrien grabbed his head and groaned loudly, drawing the eyes of students to them.

"Dude, you keep saying Chloe's your friend but she really isn't." Nino wiped at the snot dripping down his face with his sleeve, the cold wind whipping them both in the face. It turned out to be much colder for an October day then anyone could have expected.

Adrien pulled his jacket closer to his body, trying not to shiver.

"You're all about this whole 'making friends' thing but you're not being a real friend to anyone if you don't stand up for them when they're being bullied." Nino swallowed his bite of sandwich and leaned in for another bite when Adrien grabbed him by the shoulders.

Adrien looked wide-eyed at Nino, panic written all over his face. Blond hair flying in every direction the wind took it. It was the least composed Nino had ever seen Adrien before.

"What do you mean bullied?" Adrien's face made Nino start to pull back.

"Yeah…Bro, didn't you know? That's like what Chloe does. She's like, the class bully."

Adrien stayed silent, eyes wide.

Nino took a step back, quickly shoving the leftover sandwich back into its plastic bag. Adrien's car pulled up in front of them, but Adrien made no move to get inside.

"But we all deal with it," Nino threw his backpack back on his shoulder and pulled his sweatshirt hood up to cover his head. "Marinette normally gets the worst of it, but she's started standing up for herself, so it's not so pitiful to watch."

Nino starts to walk back to the school steps, but then stops. Adrien hasn't made a move to get into his car.

"The thing is, I'm not sure if that was a smart thing to do or not."

Nino looked back at Adrien and waved at him.

"See you after lunch bro!"

Natalie pushed open the door from the back, "Adrien get inside the car."

He snapped out of his haze and climbed wordlessly into the back of the car, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Natalie made no move to talk to him as the car started up, and he appreciated it.

He knew what Chloe was doing was wrong. And he wanted to help Marinette, but he had hesitated. Maybe because Chloe was all over him, maybe because he was afraid of Chloe being mad at him, or maybe it was just because he was afraid.

But when she looked up at him with those tired, sad eyes he instantly regretted everything. The look in her eyes crushed him and he hadn't been able to think about anything else after that moment.

He clenched his fists on his new jacket, not noticing that the car had pulled up in front of his house.

* * *

When Adrien returned to school after lunch, he had changed his jacket and had the full intention to apologize to Marinette.

But he didn't spot her during lunch. He found Alya, but she said she went home for lunch and hadn't come back yet. The bell rang, bringing everyone back to the classroom where Adrien waited for Marinette to walk through the door but she never did. The final bell rung and class started but Marinette was nowhere to be seen.

It made the knot in his stomach that much tighter, and he swore he would set things right.

* * *

Marinette had every intention to return to school that day but when she collapsed on her couch and burst out sobbing when her mom asked her about school, she decided to take a mental health day.

Marinette put on her pajamas and climbed into bed, pulling her hair out of her signature pigtails and covering her entire body in blankets.

"Marinette, why do you let Chloe get to you?" Tikki whispered as she nuzzled Marinette's face, trying to comfort her.

Marinette instantly frowned and uncovered the blanket covering her head and pushed Tikki away from her. Marinette thought she was done crying but the tears threatened to come back.

"What do you mean, let her get to me?" Marinette threw her pillow at Tikki as tears filled her eyes, "I didn't do anything to Chloe but yet she attacks me! Harasses me and I can't do anything. If I told the teacher what's happening to me I'll get expelled just like Alya was. But this time Ladybug won't be there to fix the situation!"

Tikki's eyes go wide and she flies away from Marinette.

Marinette instantly deflates, "I'm so sorry Tikki." She whispers, "This has nothing to do with you but I snapped at you and I'm sorry."

Marinette grabs another pillow and clutches it at her chest. Tikki flies over and sits on her shoulder.

" Oh Marinette, please don't be sad." Tikki wipes away at Marinette's tears and Marinette looks down at her Kwami. "If you want I can pretend to be a ghost and scare her?" Tikki offered, giving her best ghost impression.

Marinette chuckles, "No that's okay."

She sat there on her bed for a while before a plan started to grow in her head on the perfect way to get revenge on Chloe Bourgeois.

A smile erupts from Marinette's face, "No, I have a much better idea Tikki."

* * *

Hi guys, long time no fanfiction! ha ha haha ha. Just kidding.

My plan for this fanfiction is to focus more on serious situations that could arise from balancing a double life. I'm not 100% sure if there is going to be sex or gore in this so just to be safe I picked a M rating. But to be honest I'm fucking 20 years old and writing about a kids show, so you bet your sweet feet there might be some smooches. I'll probably update a whole bunch while I'm still obsessed, currently I write this between classes at University. But I'm sure as my followers know, I don't write short stories.

Comment, Favorite and Follow!

(Yeah and okay I know there are some spelling mistakes and typos but cut me some slack it's just me and spell check people, geez)


	2. Chapter 2 : Half & Whole Stitch

Chapter 2

Marinette brushed the remaining dust off her pants and tried to hold in her smile. She was the first person in class this morning, but she was also one of the first to be on campus. It was going to be worth waking up early and making multiple trips back and forth from the park to her classroom. She could already imagine Chloe's face when she realized just what sweet revenge Marinette had in store for her.

She couldn't help the excitement that held her eyes intensely to the door to her classroom. She wasn't ready when she saw Alya stumble in, throwing down her bag on the chair next to Marinette. She immediately set her head down on the table and groaned softly.

Marinette's chipper mood evaporated, she'd only seen Alya like this a few times before. It was either bad news, a bad date or family drama, or sometimes all three.

"Alya what's wrong?" Marinette reached out and placed her hand cautiously on Alya's arm, trying not upset her any more. She loved her best friend but sometimes her sadness and anger mixed together and turned her into someone who was very unpredictable.

"I can't take the internship!" Alya's head snapped up revealing ugly, heavy sobbing. It scared Marinette out of her seat and sent her tumbling out of her chair.

More people had started to make their way into the classroom, staring at Marinette's position on the floor. She quickly scrambled back into her seat, trying not to disturb her backpack.

Her best friend's hair was a mess and her buttons on her emerald green double-breasted coat was buttoned in the wrong order. Her glasses were crooked on her face and snot dripped down her nose.

"Oh Alya, why not!? It's your dream come true!" Marinette wasn't enthusiastic about her best friend hunting down her alter ego with a full blown camera crew and a national platform to broadcast her ever exciting hunt for Ladybug's identity but she hated seeing her like this. If this was what the internship meant to Alya, who was Marinette to try to discourage her?

"Be-because my mom said I can't. She said that I-I'd be away from home to much and she needs m-me to wa-watch my sisters while she's at work." Alya swiped at her nose and tried to hold in her tears.

"Oh Alya..."

"I t-told her how m-much it meant to me but she sa-says she's worried about my grades and...Oh Marinette I really wanted to do this!" Suddenly Alya's voice shifted from her sniffling to blown out anger. She slammed her fist on the table causing everyone in the classroom to jump.

There was still about ten minutes left before class started but more and more people started to file in, Chloe would be here any minute and she needed Alya to calm down or her plan would never work.

"Well...how often do they want you at the station?" Marinette whispered, she pulled her sleeve down and wiped at Alya's tears.

"They want me everyday after school and on Saturdays. They told me they only really needed me to be there so if Ladybug ever showed up I'd be ready." Alya straightened her glasses and Marinette reached into her purse and pulled out a small brush and handed it to Alya.

"Well, have you told them about your situation?" Marinette reached out and started fixing the buttons on Alya's jacket.

"What? No!" Alya suddenly stopped brushing her hair, grabbing Marinette by the shoulders. "What if they fire me? What if they say if I'm not flexible enough an-and then I can't work there!"

"They offered you the internship," Marinette whispered back, looking around at all the curious eyes looking at them. "If they wanted you so much don't you think they would be more considerate to your schedule?"

"You think?"

Marinette smiled, "You know it."

Alya gave her friend large grin and captured Marinette in a large bear hug. Marinette laughed and hugged her back. She really did love Alya, even if she did seem to have mood swings on the drop of a dime when she was upset. She just had a tendency to get upset when things got in her way, but Marinette couldn't really judge, she was the same way.

"I'll email them right away, they want me to start-"

"Well if this isn't the most touching scene I've seen all day."

Marinette's smile dropped off her face and she turned to look back at Chloe. There she was again, in her matching maroon jacket with Sabrina at her side.

"Chloe leave us alone!" Alya hissed back at the blond.

Alya was about to get up and face Chloe but Marinette held her hand out to stop her. She would handle her this time.

"I see you're not wearing your garbage sweater," Chloe held her hand up to her face and looked down her nose at Marinette. "But you still stink of it and it's offensive to my delicate nose."

Sabrina snickered from behind Chloe and everyone was watching them again. If her classmates wouldn't speak up about Chloe's bullying, Marinette had no choice but to get her own revenge.

"Oh no Chloe," Marinette put on her saddest face and looked down at her backpack, "please don't kick my backpack down the stairs again!" She added in a little, pathetic sniffle for dramatics.

She didn't look down to the door when Adrien and Nino entered, even though she could her Nino say something to Adrien, and Adrien whisper back. She wouldn't rely on him to stand up for her, even if she wished he would. Adrien was nice, and that's why she liked him, but sometimes too nice to the wrong people.

"Oh is that so." Chloe lifted her leg off the ground and started swinging it back and forth, close to her backpack. Marinette tried her hardest not to bust out into giggles and keep her pathetic victim face on.

"Chloe, enough!" Adrien stomped up the steps, "You're better than this."

Marinette couldn't help the flop her stomach made when she saw Adrien's face. The one time she wanted for him to leave her alone he decided to stand up for her, just her luck.

"Oh Adrien, I love how much you love me." Chloe cooed, grabbing Adrien's arm and pulling herself onto him. Marinette could feel Ayla's glare burning into the back of her head but she still stayed back. Everyone else was dead silent. "But Marinette needs to learn her lesson for disrespecting me."

Everything happened in slow motion and then suddenly speed up until it was just a blur.

Marinette watched as Chloe lifted her leg, getting ready to kick her bag down the steps. At the same time Adrien was pulling out of her grasp to reach down and grab the bag, and everyone started to gasp collectively. Chloe had a satisfied grin on her face but at the corner of her eye she caught Marinette breaking out into a Cheshire cat smile. She didn't have enough time to stop her foot as it collided full speed with her bag.

Which Marinette had filled completely with rocks.

Her bag only moved about two inches then fell on its side. Marinette was impressed with her craftsmanship, it has taken 20 minutes and two trips from the park to bring enough rocks to fill up her bag, but it had been worth it.

Then it sped up, Chloe started howling with pain and clutched her foot and the entire classroom erupted in laughter. Adrien and Alya were the only two who didn't break out into hysterics.

Alya was too amazed that her Marinette had gone to such clever extremes to get back at Chloe. Her heart warmed with pride and couldn't have been more proud of her best friend.

And Adrien was just surprised.

The bell rung while Chloe was still howling and the class still laughing. The teacher entered and had to yell multiple times over all the noise to get the students to settle down. But no one moved to go to their seats, and Kim was rolling on the floor with laughter.

It took a few tries to settle them down but as soon as the laughter quieted enough that Chloe could be heard, she shouted to the teacher.

"My foot! It's broken! Marinette broke my foot!" She cried, hopping on her good leg.

The teacher raised her eyebrow at Marinette, who innocently looked back at her.

"I didn't do anything to Chloe!" She said sweetly.

"Lair! You filled your bag with, with cement and made me kick it!" Chloe hissed as she pointed an accusing finger into Marinette's face.

Marinette made a confused face, then looked back to the teacher. "I told her 'Please don't kick my bag, it's full of rocks for an after school project'!"

The class erupted into snickers.

Alya stood up from behind her desk, "I saw the whole thing! Marinette told her not to kick her bag but she did it anyways!"

Marinette looked up at her best friend was total admiration. Man she was glad she and Alya were friends.

The teacher's face sunk and she sighed. Every day something like this happened, couldn't she just get through one lesson in peace?

"Sabrina, take Chloe to the nurse's office." The teacher tried to ignore Chloe's whining for justice and revenge.

Chloe was manic as Sabrina helped her hop over to the door of the classroom. Everyone was watching and Chloe didn't go silent until she reached the door handle.

She looked up and made direct eye contact with Marinette.

"This isn't over. I'll get my justice."

Then Sabrina opened the door for her and helped her out, Chloe complaining all the way down the hallway.

Marinette acted like she wasn't bothered about Chloe's threat on the outside, but on the inside she was nervous. Chloe Bourgeois was a brat but you really didn't want to start competing with her on 'who can do the most harm to a person on both their emotional and reputation level'.

But that didn't stop her from playing over that moment of Chloe kicking her bag full of rocks over and over again in her mind.

* * *

By the end of the day, three things had happened.

The first was that Chloe didn't have a broken foot or even a broken toe, but simply a bruised foot.

The second was that an hour and a half into class, Marinette was called into the principal's office where she faced an angry Chloe, Chloe's father, her own mother and father, and a nervous principle.

Marinette's father and Chloe's father had bit of a reputation of clashing heads when it came to their daughters. It was no secret about how they had argued over who's daughter was at fault over the whole 'stolen bracelet' incident.

After being accused of breaking Chloe's foot and threatened to be sued by the city, and one angry mother talking about how her daughter had come home in tears, after two hours they had come to a compromise.

Detention for two weeks after school, and a written apology to Chloe, or Marinette would be expelled for a month.

Writing that written apology to Chloe was like swallowing acid. But she didn't know what was worse, that Chloe had managed to weasel her way into getting her detention for two weeks or that she knew she made Marinette cry and was the reason she didn't come back to school after lunch yesterday.

The second part was worse.

The third thing that happened was that after detention she would have to carry all the rocks back to the park.

* * *

Marinette actually enjoyed her detention. They weren't allowed to talk, look at each other, listen to music or get out of their seats but she managed to finish off her homework and get a bit of studying done. She didn't remember the last time she had actually sat down and did her homework without being interrupted by Tikki, her parents or an akuma attack.

There wasn't a ton of people in detention, but she was surprised to see Ivan and Alix there. Ivan really wasn't a bad person or even as half as scary as he appeared to be, he was just suffering from the worst thing a teenager could go through, hard core puberty before all of his classmates.

And Alix?

Marinette was sure whatever landed her here was something worth getting detention over, probably not as petty as filling her backpack full of rocks, but something more along the lines of shaving someone's head.

She waved to them as she took her seat and they both smiled back but Marinette was quickly caught by Ms. Mendeleiev.

"Marinette," she screeched, making Marinette flinch "Take your seat, there is no socializing during detention!"

So there she was, for an hour she had complete silence, except for some kid's soft snoring and the sound of Ms. Mendeleiev turning pages in her book 'Science Explained: How to Introduce Complex Theories', to do her homework. Tikki looked up at for from her purse and flashed her reassuring smiles. She was nibbling on a piece of candy her mother had given to her after the whole principle meeting.

"Here," Her mother handed her a piece of hard candy "take this and eat it during detention." Her mother glared at Chloe and her father as they left the principal's office.

"At least they can't take this away from you."

Marinette was surprised her parents weren't mad at her for the whole incident. Disappointed that she didn't tell them about how Chloe was bothering her but not mad about her way to get revenge.

"Kids will be kids." Her father shrugged his shoulders and that was it. No 'Marinette we expect you to handle your problems with words'.

At least her parents had her back.

So as Ms. Mendeleiev started to talk about how order and rules made high society possible, Marinette knew detention was beginning to wrap up.

She had been carrying all her books and pencils in her arms, since her backpack was currently glued to the floor next to her desk. So when Ms. Mendeleiev dismissed them, she had a sudden feeling of dread.

She was going to have to carry all those rocks back to the park.

The classroom was empty by the time she had picked up all her things and started to walk out of the door.

"Tikki, can I transform into Ladybug and just use my awesome superhero strength to carry all the rocks back at the same time?"

"Marinette got them there this morning," Tikki few out of her purse and hovered near her head, "Marinette can get them back." The fairy let out a few giggles.

"I guess you're right Tikki," Marinette smiled, closing the door to the detention room behind her. "Time for super Marinette to come out!" She laughed and puffed out her chest in a heroic pose.

"Marinette!"

Tikki flew into her purse and Marinette deflated. She had dreamed about this voice enough to know exactly who it belonged to. Her palms started to sweat and she clutched her school books tightly in her arms.

Just great.

She slowly turned around and looked Adrien, a dumb smile cracking out on her face.

"Hey A-Adrien!"

The first thing she noticed was that he was out of breath and wasn't wearing his usual school apparel. His hair was combed back and wavy, and he was wearing what had to be the weirdest denim jacket she's ever seen.

He leaned over and clutched his knees for support, trying to catch his breath and speak at the same time.

"Photo….Shoot…Champs…élysées…Ran…So…Far!"

Marinette tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach and re-adjusted her grasp on her books, her sweaty palms were making it increasingly difficult to keep a strong grasp on them. She really hoped she wouldn't drop all her stuff right in front of Adrien.

"The Champs-élysées?" Her eyes grew wide, "T-that's all the way on the other side of the river! What-what are you doing here?" She tried to resist reaching out to Adrien.

He stood up, still trying to calm his breath. His eyebrows were scrunched together and he had a sad look in his eyes. It made Marinette's heart clench.

"I wanted to…say sorry…you," he swallowed, suddenly looking nervous and looking away from Marinette. "never came back…to class…"

Oh.

"Uh, well, yeah." Marinette shifted her grip on her books again, avoiding Adrien's eyes. "They didn't think it would be a great idea to put me back with Chloe so I stayed in Mr. Damocles' office." She scratched the back of her head.

This was so embarrassing, Marinette didn't want Adrien to think she was a delinquent or someone that couldn't be trusted.

Adrien's breathing finally started to slow and he glanced over his shoulder to the front doors. Then he suddenly looked back to Marinette with wide eyes, frantic he grabbing her shoulders. Scaring the life out of her, she looked up at him.

"I shouldn't have let her do that to you!" Gripping her shoulders tightly, his voice only got more manic. "It was wrong that I didn't help you when Chloe kicked your stuff!"

Marinette's heart was about to burst, Adrien Agreste was speaking to her one on one, touching her and apologizing.

"I'm so sorry Marinette," he kept going on, "Chloe was wrong to do that to you and I should have said something to the teacher about what happened yesterday but I didn't and now you have detention for two weeks because of me and I'm just so so sorry."

"Whoah Adrien, wait a second." The butterflies subsided enough for her to get a rational word out of her mouth. She took a step back, breaking his grip on her shoulders. She needed to think for a second, and his touch scrambled her mind.

"It's not your fault, Chloe is always going to be Chloe." She tried to console him, this really wasn't his fault and, okay sure, she was mad when he didn't stand up for her but it really was between her and Chloe. "And I was the one to decide to get revenge on Chloe, I really could have broken her foot. Don't worry Adrien it isn't your fault."

Adrien looked like he was going to cry, and Marinette was starting to wonder how much he blamed himself for this.

"I always thought Chloe was my friend and that she really wasn't all that bad but here she is bullying everyone and making them cry. It's inexcusable for me-" He growled out, clenching his fist.

"Wait a second, cry?" Marinette felt her stomach drop into the floor. Oh no.

Adrien looked back to her with sorry eyes, and Marinette groaned silently. She turned and started speed walking down the hallway to get to her classroom, leaving Adrien behind. Chloe had probably told the entire class what had happened in the principal's office, well at least the version that portrayed Marinette as pathetic as possible.

Adrien jogged to keep up with her, obviously still distraught with Marinette's reaction.

"Wait, Marinette, it wasn't that bad. She told the class that yesterday that you came home crying to your mother about how no one liked you and that you were to scared to come back but no one believed her!"

Marinette refused to look at him, her own shame burning bright on her face. She stopped suddenly at their classroom door, throwing Adrien off and making him take a step back.

"Thanks for telling me Adrien," She looked down and let her bangs cover her face. She didn't want him to see the tears well up in her eyes at how frustrated she was at this whole situation, and she didn't want to him to think she was over emotional. "Really. You didn't have to run all the way here and I have to go get my backpack, and uh, stuff, so like, uh thanks and bye."

She reached out to grab the handle of the classroom door, eager to just escape Adrien. She had done enough to damage her image in front of him already, and having a break down in front of her crush wasn't something she wanted to add on to the drama that had happened already today. She just wanted to go get her bag and go home, and for this day to just end.

"Marinette, wait I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you, wait Marinette just let me-" Adrien glanced over his shoulder to the front of the school again, what he spotted made him alarmed enough to push Marinette into the classroom and close the door behind them.

Marinette was startled by the shove, and already sweaty palms made it hard to hold on to her school books. She wasn't ready for that shove and tumbled through the door, dropping her stuff on the floor.

She could feel her face turn bright red, why won't this day just end already?

Adrien put his back up to the door and looked out the window again, not noticing Marinette's stuff all over the floor. He looked panicked, like he was being chased by something or someone.

He ran his fingers through his hair and tried to regain his composure. This really wasn't what he had imagined when he had made up his plan to escape from his photo shoot to go apologize to Marinette. It was supposed to be a quick thing, go say sorry and that he'd be a better friend from on, then run back. But he hadn't anticipated how far away his photo-shoot would be from his school or just how far he'd have to run. And now Natalie and Gorilla were down at the entrance of the school looking for him. Well, at least he won't have to run back.

"I'm sorry Marinette I can't stay but I just had to-" He looked back at her with a weak smile, ready to go back to the apology that he had rehearsed in his mind when she didn't come back to class, but what he saw made his smile drop off his face.

Marinette was picking up her stuff off the floor, he must have shoved her too hard and made her drop her stuff.

How was he any better than Chloe?

"Oh my gosh Marinette, I'm sorry! Here let me help you-" Adrien bent down and reached for her history book.

"No, it's okay! Really." Marinette interrupted him, she was sitting on the floor trying to fish her pen out from underneath their teacher's desk. She had a pitiful smile on her face and Adrien knew he messed up. "I can do this, I'm sure you're busy doing…modeling things." She gestured to his denim jacket.

Adrien felt his face heat up, only now remembering his appearance. It was the new urban winter line his father designed. It bordered on cool and trying to hard, but the stylist said it looked good. Now he wasn't so sure.

"Adrien? Are you here?" Natalie's voice was faint but they could both hear her clearly.

Adrien looked through the window again and back down to Marinette, expression worried and unsure. He reached down and picked up her book and grabbed a few pens quickly and put them on top of the teacher's desk. Marinette was still on the floor when he strode over, looking over his shoulder at the door.

To Marinette's surprise he dropped down next to her on the floor, bending over he reached under the desk. His face was only inches away from her own face and she froze.

Her heart did double time in her chest and she stopped breathing. He was so close to her, she could see the way his eyelashes cast a shadow over his face, how his bright green eyes had just a touch of yellow at the center, and smell his cologne. She briefly wondered if he wore his own brand or something else, it smelt like soap met freshly cut wood but it was still very classy and sophisticated.

She brought herself back to what was happening in front of her face, don't get lost in thought now Marinette. Keep yourself together.

His long arms had no problem grabbing her pen and all too quickly and his face pulled away.

But still he was too close, only centimeters separated their knees and her brain just turned off. All she could do was look at him in shock.

He stared back at her and held her pen out to her, but Marinette didn't grab it. He was studying her face or maybe her reaction but both of them were frozen in place.

"I really am sorry I didn't stand up to Chloe yesterday," He grabbed her hand and placed her pen in her palm. "But I promise it won't happen again. I'm going to be a better friend, I swear."

Her stomach was so clenched with nervousness she felt like she was going to explode.

He paused and looked back up at her face, and Marinette didn't even blink. If she did she felt like she might ruin the magic that surrounded them.

"I never knew you had freckles." he smiled.

Marinette died. She died and her soul left her body and she was dead. Super dead. She wondered what type of flowers she wanted at her funeral. Daises? No that's tacky.

"Adrien?!" Their moment was shattered.

Natalie's voice was louder than last time, which meant she was getting closer.

Adrien looked over his shoulder one more time, then turned back. He let out a bashful smile and scratched the back of his head.

"I, uh, gotta go." He slowly started to get up but Marinette could only look at him from the floor. Her legs were too weak to stand up.

"I'll, um, see you later." She made her best attempt to sound sane and not to sound like her heart didn't just explode in her chest.

"I'll see you tomorrow okay? And, um please don't tell anyone about this ugly jacket, okay?" Adrien waved over his shoulder as he started to make his way to the door, letting out a bashful grin.

Marinette let out a giggle and waved back at him.

"Don't worry, I won't. See you tomorrow."

And then he left, closing the door softly behind him. Marinette stayed on the floor and just listened to his footsteps get fainter until it was silent again.

She slowly got up from the floor and finished gathering up all her stuff, and Tikki flew out of her purse.

"Wow." Tikki whispered, staring at the door.

"I know."

"…."

"Tikki?"

"Yes Marinette?"

"I think I just died."

Both of the girls busted out in giggles.

* * *

Adrien wasn't in trouble with his father, in fact no one but Natalie noticed that he had disappeared. She knew that he'd be at school, so by the time they made it back to the shoot it was time for his photos.

While he was modeling the ugliest jacket he'd ever worn, he wondered if Marinette had always smelled so nice.

* * *

I'm still shaking off all the rust from not writing in, like, what? 4 years? Yikes.

I really identify with Marinette's crushing style, I also lose my shit and just blabber random shit. But I do it until I embarrass myself and then I just stop talking. Ya know, do damage control.

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	3. Chapter 3 : Réseau

Chapter 3

It took three trips to carry all the rocks back to the park and to grab her school supplies. She made sure she shake all dirt and dust out of her backpack before she put all of her stuff inside.

The sun was beginning to set and she was opening the door to the bakery when her phone buzzed.

She pulled it out, Alya's face lit up her screen.

Accepting the phone call, she put it up to her ear and wedged it between her face and shoulder.

"What's up Alya?"

"I emailed them about my schedule and they said that they understood! They want me to be at the station as much as possible but if I can't make it just to give them a call! Oh Marinette I was sure that they were going to say I couldn't work there anymore but oh my gosh I'm so glad I listened to you!"

Marinette waved to her mom, who gestured silently to lock the door behind her. The bakery closed as soon as they ran out of stuff to sell or 7pm, whatever came first.

"See? Aren't I the bestest friend ever!?"

"Bestest isn't a word."

"Whatever, you know what I mean."

Marinette reached over to the open sign and flipped it to closed. Her mother started to count the money in the register.

"But that isn't all I called you about, I had to tell you what happened in class today after Chloe came back. She was on crutches and had bandages wrapped around her foot! This girl, I swear, if anything you did her a favor so now she has more attention than ever."

Marinette leaned over and kissed her mother on the cheek and started making her way up to the apartment.

"Why is she acting like it's broken? It was only bruised, the nurse said it twice while she and her father were talking about suing me and my family."

Marinette reached into her bag looking for her house keys.

"Seriously? That girl would not shut up about how 'broken' it was."

"Yep, just bruised. But are you really surprised she'd milk it so much? I mean it's the only way to distract people how good I got her."

Marinette laughed, still looking inside her bag for her keys.

"Talking about distracting people, Marinette I need to tell you what happened! Stop changing the subject on me!"

Marinette frowned, turning her bag inside out in front of her door. She could have swore she picked up everything from the classroom.

"Yeah, yeah go on Alya."

Marinette's neighbor stepped out of their door and glared at the mess she had made, and Marinette smiled back bashfully.

"Anyways, so when Chloe came back into the classroom she was saying how she made you cry to your mommy and that you were a big baby and bla bla bla and guess what?!"

Marinette sighed, she must have not picked up her keys in the classroom. She started shoving everything back into her backpack.

"What happened Alya."

"Adrien stood up for you, like hard core. I couldn't even get a word in edgewise like those two were going at it. She was saying so much shit about you and he just threw it right back to her! I never thought I'd see the day that Adrien would say something about how Chloe's behavior. Man it was awesome!"

Marinette stopped, grabbing the phone with her hand she pressed it tightly to her face.

"Really? He did that?"

"Yep. I wish I recorded it, I swear if the teacher hadn't stopped it either it would have ended in tears or a brawl."

Marinette couldn't believe her ears, a huge smile erupted on her face.

"Speaking of Adrien…"

While Marinette ran back to the school to get her keys, and filled in Alya about what happened after detention. She really didn't want to tell her parents she's lost her only set of house keys...again. They had already done so much for her today and she didn't want to disappoint them further.

When she finished her story, she had reached the front doors of her school. The sun was about to set completely and the doors were locked.

"…Holy shit Marinette I think Adrian likes you!"

Marinette sighed, "I wish, but you should have seen how guilty he looked when he was saying all this. I think he blamed himself about Chloe's behavior."

"Maybe it's both."

"Maybe." Marinette started to run down the stone steps and go around to the back of the school. "Listen Alya I got to go, uh, dinner is ready and I gotta go eat!"

"Alright girl, I'm on the way to the station for my first day of orientation! Wish me luck!"

"Good luck! Nock 'em dead."

"Bye!"

Marinette hung up the phone and shoved it back into her pocket. She was behind the building now, away from the street where no one could see her. She threw her bag behind a bush and started climbing up the building.

As Ladybug, she had found that this particular window was always left open and it was very easy to climb up to. But this was the first time Marinette climbed up to it, but still she found it pretty easy. The only thing that made it slightly tricky was how dark it was. The sun had set a lot faster then she anticipated.

She started to slide the window open when Tikki peaked her head out of her purse and looked around.

"Marinette what are you doing?" Tikki whispered.

Marinette threw her leg over the window ledge and started to pull herself through the opening.

"I just gotta grab my keys. It will be fast I swear."

"Marinette, couldn't you have done this tomorrow?"

They both scrunched their nose at the same time, this window was always open because it was the window to the smelliest boys bathroom in the entire school.

"Yes, but I didn't want to admit to my parents how much of a klutz I am." Marinette covered her nose and moved quickly to the door leading out of the bathroom.

"Uck." Tikki flew through the door without another word.

"Tell me about it."

* * *

It really was a quick trip, she had found her keys easily. They had slid behind a table leg but they weren't covered or hidden by anything. Her strawberry keychain beckoned her over in her dark classroom. She was back to the stinky boys bathroom before she knew it. She was about to close the window again when she looked over at Tikki.

"Should I leave it open?" Marinette whispered, "I mean it will smell better if it's aired out."

"I don't know, what if a animal sneaks in and gets stuck?" Tikki flew around Marinette's head.

Marinette considered it for a moment, but both of them got another wiff of the stench.

"Leave it open." They both said at the same time.

So Marinette climbed back down the wall and walked back home.

* * *

Marinette could see the police pull up to her school from her bedroom window. There was a crowd of students and civilians that had been roped off from getting to close to the entrance, even the news was there.

"I wondered what happened." She said to her Kwami.

"I hope it has nothing to do with our open window last night." Tikki mumbled back.

Marinette's stomach clenched. At the time she thought she was going the school a favor but as she went to bed, it didn't sit well with her and she hadn't been able to stop thinking about if it was the right thing to do.

"I guess we'll just have to go see."

* * *

When Marinette shoved her way to the front of the crowd, she saw why they weren't letting anyone inside.

It was completely trashed, all the windows had been shattered, littering the ground with glass shards. Most of the doors were off their hinges and large scratch marks covered the walls. It looked like a wild animal was let loose and trashed the place. Marinette caught a glimpse of words written on the wall but there were too many police officers in the way.

"Marinette!"

She turned around and saw Nino from the back of the crowd, waving his arms at her to get her attention. She quickly shoved her way out of the front, swimming through the crowd of people.

"…Chat Noir?"

"…Won't let this..."

"…Impossible…"

The crowd was murmuring and whispering amongst themselves. Marinette tried to ignore them, even as many of them asked the people around them how Ladybug had let this happen.

She finally got to him, Rose, Juleka and their teacher stood together away from the crowd, standing out of the way to let the police to get through.

"Nino, what's going on!?" She approached the group, looking around for Alya and Adrien.

"The school has been trashed! Apparently someone got inside last night and just vandalized the entire thing." Nino was normally pretty composed, but his voice and expression were wild.

"And the worst part is that they think Ladybug and Chat Noir did it."

Marinette turned around and saw Alya behind her, she had her hair pulled back with a thick royal blue coat and black sweater. She's never seen Alya dressed so…professionally before. And in her hand was a microphone with TVi's logo printed on it.

"What? No way! Ladybug and Chat Noir don't do stuff like this!" Marinette was frantic, she grabbed at Alya's shoulders but her best friend just looked so deflated.

"Yeah, it was called in about an hour ago. Three different witnesses said they saw Ladybug and Chat Noir break into the school last night."

No…

"What? Are you sure?" Marinette couldn't believe her ears.

Alya looked away, she rubbed her arm and Marinette suddenly realized how cold it was and she wasn't wearing a jacket.

"I'm supposed to do a report on it in 3 minutes."

"Alya no!" Marinette whispered, "there isn't any proof! Common Alya you know Ladybug and Chat Noir the best, you know-"

"Marinette!" Alya's head snapped to face Marinette, her eyes were wide and her body tense. "There is proof. It's all inside of here!" Alya pointed to the school.

Marinette shrank back, suddenly scared of what her friend had to say next.

"There was a note inside, which, true, could have been left by anyone. But there is torn fabric from both Ladybug and Chat Noir's costumes. And the witnesses, and the way things are broken, claw marks on the walls, spikes with ladybug spots on them…It all adds up."

Marinette looked back at the school and then back to her best friend. Torn between turning into Ladybug now and clearing her name or looking for the culprit herself.

"But why would they do this Alya?"

"I don't know…I have no idea…" Alya looked to the ground and then back up at Marinette, eyes hard.

"I have to go, I'm on in a minute." Alya turned away from Marinette and the group. Marinette had never seen Alya so sad before, so heart broken.

Marinette watched her friend walk away and talk to the cameraman.

She didn't stick around to watch her best friend give her first televised report. She ran back to her house, apparently the principle and all of the teachers had been calling all of the student's homes to tell them about the incident and that school would be canceled for today. But they planned to be fully open by tomorrow thanks to the help of major Bourgeois.

Great, another way to put the principle under the Bourgeois' thumb.

She ran straight up to her room and was about to transform but Tikki flew out in front of her.

"Wait Marinette!" Tikki yelled over Marinette's command to transform.

Marinette looked down at her, confused. "What is it Tikki?"

"Are you sure that going out there right now is the best idea?" Tikki whispered.

"What do you mean by that?" Marinette was boiling over with rage at the idea that someone was pretending to be her and her partner. How dare they, and how dare people believe that Ladybug and Chat Noir could do something like this!?

"I'm just say," Tikki spoke softly, trying to calm Marinette down. "Right now they think that Ladybug and Chat Noir are responsible for a lot of damage and they're all upset. Even if you went out there and told them it wasn't you, they might now believe you and try to arrest you. And how can you prove your innocence behind bars?"

Marinette looked away from her Kwami and started pacing around her room, not realizing she had left her window open, letting in the cold wind. She walked over to the open window and looked down at the crowd. Alya was filming her report from inside the school, and Marinette watched as she lead the camera inside the doors to show them all the proof of Ladybug and Chat Noir's damage.

"Maybe you're right Tikki." Marinette shut the window softly.

Tikki flew over and sat on Marinette's shoulder, cuddling close to her neck. They both watched as more people arrived. News trucks and evidence vans kept coming and going but the group of people watching never thinned.

She could hear mother watching the report and Marinette walked over to the latch in her floor and kicked it shut, trying to block out Alya's voice.

"It's not the first time something like this has happened to Ladybug and it won't be the last." Tikki whispered to Marinette, "But it always works out…eventually."

She was sure Tikki meant that in a reassuring way but all it did was make Marinette worry more.

"I need to tell Chat Noir. We need a game plan." Marinette couldn't stop looking at her school though her window.

Tikki flew out in front of her and blocked her view, snapping Marinette out of it.

They both nodded at the same time and transformed.

Once Marinette turned into Ladybug, she instantly felt better. Ladybug was like the adult version of Marinette, self confident and smart. If Marinette couldn't figure something out, Ladybug could.

She released her yoyo off her waist and quickly slid it open to call Chat Noir. Hoping that his Kwami would at least alert him that she was trying to get in contact with him.

It rang and rang for what felt like forever, so she climbed up to her bed and decided to lay down to wait. Maybe he was in a situation that he couldn't transform right away or something. But unless he hung up on her she knew he'd eventually figure out she was trying to contact him.

It kept ringing and ringing but 5 minutes turned into 15 and Marinette was getting bored. She couldn't leave her room and thanks to detention she finished all her homework.

So she left her yoyo flipped open on her bed while she grabbed her cellphone from her desk. Climbing back up she laid down with the yoyo's screen in plain sight as she started flipping though the Ladyblog. The latest post was the link to the news story Alya was doing this morning, and the one before that was a post about her new internship at TVi.

Marinette kicked herself, she really wished she hadn't encouraged Alya to stay at TVi. Maybe if she was still just doing her own self reporting she wouldn't felt like she had to turn on them. Ladyblog Alya would have believed Ladybug and Chat Noir innocence, even if everyone else turned on them.

"You rang, my lady?"

She locked her phone and tossed it aside. She didn't bother sitting up to talk to Chat, and if anything this whole situation had just drained her. Normally being Ladybug was like being a spring that never fully extends. She can feel her power and limits easily, but right now she was to preoccupied with the problems racing in her head to appreciate her superhero strengths.

"Chat, we need to talk." Marinette picked up her yoyo and held it out in front of her.

"Nice bed spread, pink is my favorite color too!"

She rolled her eyes. She couldn't tell where he was, but could tell it was somewhere dark. The only thing she could see was his fluorescent green eyes and the reflection of the screen on his face.

She raised her eyebrow, "Are you in a closet?"

"Well, technically yes." He grinned.

She cracked a smile in return but quickly sobered up.

"Have you heard about the vandalism at the middle scho-"

"Yes! And I'm on my way now. I watched the TVi report, how dare they blame us! Our suits are indestructible and they say they found our costume fabric? Ha!"

"Well don't get hiss-terical on me now." Marinette couldn't help throwing the cat pun out there, she had thought it up last week and now finally had a chance to say it.

"Ha ha, my lady very claw-ver," Chat broke out into a satisfied grin. "But you'll never pounce on my level."

"Ugh, I'm sorry I even brought it up." Marinette blew her bangs out of her face, "But I'm serious we need to come up with a plan of attack. My Kwami and I have been talking about it and we agree charging in there right there blindly wouldn't be the best plan of action. We need a more…subtle way of clearing our name."

Suddenly there was a loud sound coming from Chat Noir's side of the call, it startled both Chat Noir and Marinette.

"Hey, Ad-"

"YES, I AM IN HERE, I'M HERE, I'LL BE OUT IN A SECOND JUST FIXING MY… HAIR."

Marinette couldn't help the laughing that escaped her mouth.

"I know, very funny. Listen, can we meet up later and talk I'm kinda in the middle of something." Chat Noir whispered.

Marinette wiped at the tear that had gathered at the corner of her eye, letting out a few more chuckles before regaining her composure.

"Yeah, let's meet at Sacre Coeur at midnight."

"You mean that church on top of the hill?"

"Yeah, meet me in the top bell tower-"

"What are you doing in there? Come out right now A-" the voice boomed again.

"YES! I'm coming out I'm coming right now okay." A mask may cover Chat's face but it didn't hide his expressions every well, Marinette laughed at his expression that was somewhere between panic and annoyance.

"Wow, you sure are a busy kitty."

"You know it," He grinned, "I have to keep my day job."

"Remember, Sacre Coeur at midnight, highest bell tower."

"Oui, ma coccinelle." He purred.

Marinette rolled her eyes, "Use paw-tion, mon minou."

She saw Chat Noir break out into another large grin as she hung up, before they could swap more puns.

She lay down on her bed and released her transformation, felling all the power leave her body.

She stared up at her ceiling, why did she say midnight? She had nothing to do all day. She couldn't sneak into her school to search for clues, the place was crawling with police.

She looked over to Tikki who was staring worriedly at Marinette.

"Well," Marinette rolled over to face Tikki "what do you think we should do for the rest of the day Tikki? Play Mega Strike 3?"

"Make disguises." Tikki's face was very serious.

Marinette sat up on her elbow, "Really?"

Tikki nodded, "Really. For both Ladybug and Chat Noir, trust me on this. You guys are going to need it for sneaking around and not attracting attention."

Marinette blinked, sometimes she wondered if Tikki could look into the future or something. It hadn't even occurred to Marinette that it wouldn't be smart for Ladybug and Chat Noir to get caught snooping around the crime scene.

Marinette blinked a few more times before sighing.

"So much for my day off."

* * *

It seemed like the Agreste mansion was the first to be notified of the school closure. Adrien hadn't even woken up when Natalie knocked on his door, notifying him of his schedule change. Natalie had already took the liberty of moving some of his appointments around so that none of Adrien's time would be wasted doing nothing, aka relaxing. He was to be at a photoshoot in twenty minutes.

Adrien sometimes wondered if the world would ever just wait to attack him till after he got out of bed, seriously.

All Natalie had told him about the vandalism at his school was that there was vandalism at his school, and that the school was closed until tomorrow. She wasn't one for details most of the time. But when he hopped into his car and he flipped to the news to fill him in, to his surprise he saw Alya was the one to report on the damage and reporting on the prime suspects, Ladybug and Chat Noir. There was even an arrest warrant out for them, and a hotline and reward if anyone reported clue to lead to their arrest.

Amazing, you save the city a thousand times and the second there was even a question that they did something wrong all previous do-gooding was out the window.

Adrien was no stranger to this feeling, he was the subject of it once before with his own copycat. But there was never a question about Ladybug's honor.

Half way through the broadcast as they were giving the camera the walk though of all the damage, Plagg started bothering him. He turned away from Natalie, who hadn't let him go alone to this job after the whole run away incident yesterday, and pulled his shirt back.

"Ladybug is trying to call you." Plagg said sleepily. Just because Adrien got up did that rarely mean Plagg got up, most of the time he ended up sleeping in his bag until two in the afternoon when he demanded camembert.

He nodded, but he couldn't transform to answer until they got to his photo shoot location, Versailles. It took at least twenty minutes until the car pulled up and parked. Adrien claimed he had an emergency and bolted into the palace.

Natalie called after him, but he was to quick for her to catch up. Models loadering outside wardrobe trailers stared at him. The first private place where he could transform in a castle full of rooms was a maintenance closet deep into the palace.

He had no idea how Natalie had found him so fast, it's like she was a bloodhound or something.

After the phone call ended, Natalie dragged him off to the photo shoot, which was in the hall of mirrors.

While he was posing a Khaki colored trench coat with drop crotch black harem pants he couldn't help the smile that crept up to his face when he recalled that his lady had a pink bed spread, and how his heart fluttered when she made cat puns back to him. It was a rare thing, but when she did it, he couldn't help the dumb grin he'd get when he heard them.

But that made his heart stop was when she blew her bangs out of her face, she was just so cute and special and just so...so...

Man he had it so bad for Ladybug.

* * *

Oh man, the plot thickens.

I'm trying for a drama/romance/mystery/thriller/comedy but we will see how that works out. All I literally did today was write, I think I left my room twice to go pee and grab snacks. I'm thinking I'm going to post a picture of Ladybug's and Chat Noir's disguises on my Instagram (neongem) If I do I'll include a link in my next chapter.

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	4. Chapter 4 : Six Sided Star Pattern

Chapter 4

Marinette was very satisfied with the disguises she had made up for her and Chat Noir.

She stuffed them deeper into her bag as she sat down on the metro. It was deserted except for a few tourists wearing clubbing clothes and a man that had a questionable smell to him.

The reason she picked Sacre Coeur was because it was well outside of Ladybug and Chat Noir's usual places. And she was glad she did, she's finally watched Alya's broadcast while she was sewing on buttons to Chat Noir's jacket. Apparently the police were on high alert for both of them, with a hotline and a reward for their arrest. They were known to meet up of the Eiffel tower and the landmarks around there, so it didn't surprise her as her train passed the Eiffel tower she could make out the seven cop cars at the base of the tower, just waiting for a ladybug to get caught in their trap.

And the reason she took the metro? It was just too far to run to Sacre Coeur as Ladybug and she really didn't want to be caught racing on top of buildings. She wanted as minimal exposure till she had a chance to clear her name.

Especially since the reward for catching Ladybug was 10,000 euros.

But the Metro at 11:45pm wasn't exactly the safest place for a 15 year old. There were the harmless types, like the tourists and business people going home after a long day. But then there were the unsavory types, the pickpockets and the mentally unstable that yelled people and road the trains until they closed.

Marinette clutched her bag tighter in her arm as the tourist got off and another person got on and sat down right next to her.

She closed her eyes, just one more stop.

* * *

Ladybug waited for Chat Noir in the bell tower, checking the time on her yoyo, it read 12:13am.

Marinette had already changed into her disguise. It was a black jacket poncho hybrid with a high collar that she had transformed from one of her old jackets. It was something that could pass her as a fashion forward tourist, or a girl with a weird fashion sense at the worst. While she was designing, her goal was to cover the most of her bodysuit and face, still be able to move around, and something to keep her warm.

There had been a shift in the weather recently, October in Paris was normally pretty mild, with some rain here and there but nothing like it had been recently. There must have been a storm or something moving over them because Marinette couldn't remember the last time the sun broke out from behind the clouds. It wasn't just the cold weather, but the wind that brought in freezing cold temperatures. She had never had a problem being cold as Ladybug before, but suddenly the cold was biting though her suite like it was made of plastic wrap.

To finish off her disguise, she picked out her darkest pair jeans, her mother's old hiking boots and a pair of leather gloves. She had managed to cover up almost all of her signature red and black spots except for her mask.

She contemplated if she should have done with a hood instead.

She leaned against a pillar in the bell tower to brace herself from the wind. She had always loved Sacre Coeur when she passed by it but she had never climbed the limestone steps and been inside the church before.

"My lady? Are you here?" She could barely make out Chat's voice over the howling wind.

"I'm over here!" She stepped out of the shadow of the pillar.

Marinette could see Chat Noir's smile from the other side of the tower, he quickly made his way over to her and grinned.

"Whoa, what's with the getup?" Chat's hair whipped around his head wildly and Marinette could barely hear him.

"Hold on," Marinette grabbed Chat's hand and pulled him behind the pillar, blocking them from the wind. She looked up to him and smiled, "that's better."

Chat noir didn't have a smile on his face anymore. His hair had been tousled and stuck out in every direction. He was slightly winded and she couldn't help but notice the way his chest rise and fall with every breath, how he smelled and his hand lingered on her own. His normally composed and confident face seemed flustered, and his glowing green eyes were wide, completely focused on her face.

She hated when he did this, she couldn't help the way her heart sped up and her throat closed when he looked at her like that.

She quickly broke eye contact, breaking Chat Noir out of his daze and the moment they had just shared.

"Don't be jealous," She pulled her hand out of his and bent down to pick up her stuff off the ground, not catching Chat Noir's heartbroken expression when she moved away. She stood back up and pulled a large piece of black fabric out of her bag, "I got you one to!"

Marinette held out her father's old trench coat to Chat Noir. She had resized it roughly to what she thought his measurements were. He looked down to it curiously and unfolded it in his hands. She didn't have time to redesign him a whole outfit but this would do at least for tonight.

Chat Noir looked down at it and raised an eyebrow.

"What are these for again?" He started to put the coat on, "Not that I'm complaining, it's freezing out here!"

"Disguise," She helped him straighten out the collar, bringing herself close to him again. She ignored her feelings and adjusted the crooked seams down his arms, avoiding eye contact. "Unless you forgot, you and I are wanted criminals with a bounty on our head."

Chat Noir scratched the back of his head and chuckled, "Yeah, now that you mention it I remember something about a reward for anything that would lead to our arrest."

Marinette still didn't look him in the eye, she quickly helped him to button up the front of the jacket, as his claws made it almost impossible to get ahold of them.

"We need to come up with a plan," Marinette reached around and grabbed the fabric belt and tied around Chat Noir's waist. She could hear him let out a 'omph' as she tied it tight. She looked up to him and let out a shy smile, "Sorry! But, wait the transformation isn't over."

She reached back into her bag and pulled out a baseball cap. She reached up and placed it on top of his head, trying not to look at his expression.

When she was done, she took a step back to admire her work.

Chat Noir stared blankly at her, and she could tell he was a bit overwhelmed at it all. Over all she had done an alright job altering the coat, but he was broader in the shoulders then she had remembered. She took a mental note for when she designed the next version of his jacket.

Hopefully she wouldn't have to.

"You're lucky," She looked him up and down one more time before she was satisfied. "Your suit is all black, no red and black spots to cover up."

"Ladybug, what are we going to do about this." He brought the focus right back to the issue at hand.

She looked away from him again, slowly walking over the railing, overlooking all of Paris. Sacre Coeur was built on top of the highest mountain in Paris, she swore she could see the curve of the earth up here.

"I honestly don't have any idea." She whispered.

Chat Noir joined her silently beside her, looking out to the sparking sea of lights.

"Why can't we just tell them it wasn't us?"

"That might work," She picked at the railing with her finger, "But I'm just scared that if they don't believe us they're going to capture us first and ask questions later. Then we'd just be sitting ducks, just waiting in a cell for Hawkmoth to come and take our miraculous."

Chat Noir adjusted the baseball cap on his head, "Do you think this was a akuma attack?"

"I don't know, maybe? It just seems so strange for a akuma to attack a school and blame it on us. How would making the city turn against us be helpful for them to get our miraculous?"

Marinette answered her own question in her mind.

"Ugh," Marinette groaned and put her head in her hands, "Of course they benefit from the city turning on us and all looking for us! It's only a matter of time till they hunt us down and capture us."

Chat Noir nodded, "This doesn't seem like Hawkmoths usual style, are we even sure it's him behind this?"

"Who else is capable of causing so much destruction?"

"I guess you're right," Chat Noir turned away from the railing and looked down at her, eyes hard. "but it wouldn't hurt to check out the crime scene. When I was watching the TVi walk through of the crime scene, it was really weird. Things they claimed that proved that we did it were things we couldn't actually do. Giant claw marks on the wall, looks cool, but isn't really my style."

" Maybe if we check those out we can find some sort of clue of who did this."

"But the place is warming with police!" Chat Noir looked at her like she was crazy.

"Not anymore," Marinette placed her head in her hands, closing her eyes briefly. Everything was catching up to her, the late night, the stress of both Marinette's life and Ladybug's. She tried her best to keep her spirit high, "I passed by it earlier tonight and they were gone."

"This is getting really weird, why would the police stop guarding a crime scene? Especially one so fresh?" He had a point there. She really couldn't think of a reason that all focus had turned away from the damage at the middle school to finding them so quickly. It's like they forgotten why they wanted Chat Noir's and Ladybug's heads in the first place.

"I guess we will just have to go find out." Marinette stood up from the railing, grabbing her bag.

She was throwing her leg over the railing when Chat Noir mumbled something.

"What was that? I can't hear you very well."

"Well, um…" He turned away and clasped his hands behind his back. "Can we first can we get something to eat? I'm starving." He avoided her gaze.

She giggled into her hand, "Do you just want to meet up there later?"

He through his hands out in front of him, "No! I mean, I know a place…it will be really quick I swear!"

Marinette really didn't want to ride the metro back by herself anyways, "Sure why not."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but we are going to have to walk, it's probably best to avoid running along roofs. I can see helicopters in the distance, and they probably aren't looking for a traffic jam to report."

"Ugh, it's going to take forever to get there."

"Well let's hurry up, it's freezing up here!"

* * *

Ladybug and Chat Noir were not given a second look walking down the streets of Paris as they made their way to the middle school. Chat Noir had said he knew this great place to get crepes, it was only open from ten in the evening to two in the morning every night, and that he just had to take her there.

Put truth be told, Adrien had never been to this place before. But Nino wouldn't shut up about it and kept trying to get Adrien to sneak out and go with him. Adrien didn't eat meals outside of his house often, he had a strict diet and portion sizes monitored by both his chief and Natalie. But when he did have the chance to eat out he had to make it worth it, cookies, cakes, anything sweet that he wasn't supposed to eat.

He had a feeling any food he ate with Ladybug would be delicious.

Marinette was pleasantly surprised how well their disguises worked. Even as they walked through the popular tourist areas, full of clubbers and food carts, no one shouted their name or called the police, so she took that as a good sign.

Maybe because Chat Noir and Ladybug didn't walk anywhere, everyone else was stuck looking up and didn't think to look around themselves.

"Hey, how much longer till we get there? It's getting late." Marinette couldn't help asking, they were going through the slums of Paris, they hadn't seen anyone else walking for the last five blocks, and she checked her yoyo, 1:07am. No one you wanted to interact with was out at this hour.

"It's just past the river, real close to the Eiffel tower."

They were never going to get there at this pace.

"Hey, wanna take the metro?" Marinette grasped her shoulders, the day was taking a toll on her and her new coat was doing little to block the storm that was coming in.

Chat Noir stopped walking, looking down at her he lifted his baseball cap, his face unsure. "Do you think it's safe? I mean we look normal at a distance and in the dark but up close in bright light we still look like superheroes."

"I think we will be okay, anything is better than walking! Common I saw a entrance on the last block." She really wanted to get out of the streets, she couldn't help this uneasy feeling in her gut that she had as she turned every corner and her heart was about to beat out of her chest the last time she thought her reflection in a car window was a stocker.

"Wait, Ladybug! If you don't want to be recognized…" Chat Noir reached forward with his hand and Marinette stopped herself from taking a step back. She looked up at him, unsure of what he was going but didn't stop him as he brushed his fingers over her cheeks, reaching past her face as he undid the hair ties from around her pigtails, gently pulling them free.

"You should really lose your signature hairstyle, it's a dead giveaway. No one would think that Ladybug would ever let her hair down."

His blush stained his face, lit gently by the faint street lamp overhead. He smiled cautiously, unsure of her reaction.

Marinette couldn't help the blush that coated her cheeks as her hair started to sway around her face. She hadn't worn her hair down for such a long time that she didn't remember what it felt like anymore.

Marinette turned quickly and held her hand to her face, biting her lip.

"Ok-kay I see your point." She grabbed her hair and pulled it to one the side of her head, walking quickly away from him and to the metro entrance. "But let's get going, the metro closes at 2."

Chat Noir sometimes did things to Marinette that made her feel crazy. One moment he's the self-confident partner she has always known. Then the next minute he looks at her with such intensity that it made her stomach flip.

"Wait!" Chat Noir ran to catch up to Ladybug, confusion and regret written all over his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

He grabbed her hand and Marinette paused. She looked back at him, but didn't pull her hand out of his grasp as she normally did. Maybe it was everything that had happened in the last couple of days, or she was tired or going insane. Normally she didn't hang out with Chat Noir like this, so she'd only have to ignore these strange feelings for a short amount of time, or sometimes not at all. Half the time his antics turned her off, like the childish comments he'd make about her being his 'lady' or that he only wanted her.

Maybe it was the cold, and that his hand was so impossibly warm.

Instead of letting go, she gently wrapped her hand around his. She felt a dark blush spread over her face, and she looked away from his glowing green eyes. It was just her luck that this part of the street was almost pitch black, and just maybe he couldn't see her face.

But Chat Noir could see perfectly in the dark.

The words died in his throat and evaporated when he saw the blush escaping the edges of her mask. He was going to apologize for his behavior tonight, tell her that it was just stress about this whole situation and his home life, or that he was just tired. He couldn't help the sly smile that crept up onto his face.

He was tired before, a fourteen-hour shoot could do that to a person, but now he felt like his whole body had just been caught on fire and he could do anything.

He gripped her hand firmer and started charging ahead, pulling her along behind her, practically skipping down the sidewalk.

"Common, the station is this way!"

* * *

Ladybug and Chat Noir stood at the station platform next to each other. Marinette pulled her hair to the front of her face and Chat Noir had pulled his baseball cap down and collar up to hide his face. The only other person on the platform was a blind homeless man sitting on the plastic chairs lining the tunnel with a white cane resting in his hands.

Marinette unbuttoned a few of her jacket's buttons, and waved at her face with her hand. She hadn't anticipated how hot it was going to be down here compared to the arctic winter outside, and she was burning up. Sweat started to bead up on her forehead and she used her glove to wipe at it, exposing her face and mask.

"You shouldn't do that," Chat Noir looked down at her and frowned, "It's too risky."

Marinette rolled her eyes and unbuttoned a few more of her jacket buttons, exposing her red spots.

"What? Like that man over there is going to turn us in? The train will be here in two minutes, just try to act natural."

Chat Noir had been all smiles and practically hopped down the stairs to get to the platform. But the second they got into the tunnels they had spotted the large posters that completely covered the walls. They were pictures of both Chat Noir and Ladybug with the words

' **Wanted, armed and dangerous. If seen, please call this number. Any tips that lead to the arrest to these terrorists will be awarded** '

And they were everywhere, they covered the walls, train advertisements, and littered the floor. No matter where they looked, smiling faces of both Ladybug and Chat Noir stared back at them, with the word 'WANTED' printed over their faces.

But when Marinette had left the metro to go to Sacre Coeur they hadn't been there. And that was just a little over an hour ago.

Ladybug wondered if she watched the same news report as everyone else. That the fake Ladybug and Chat Noir had done to the middle school was a crime, it wasn't something that would get them labeled as terrorists.

Chat Noir clenched his fits, looking around at the platform again.

"I can't believe they're calling us terrorists," He mumbled, "We have protected them for months, almost a year, and they turn on us like it's nothing."

Ladybug started at her face in a wanted poster, unable to fully comprehend what this meant, why this was happening so suddenly.

She looked up at the train's arrival time, one minute.

"Hey, Chat…" She started speaking slowly, a realization slowly coming to her. "Why do you think they're calling us terrorists?"

Chat Noir snapped out of his daze staring at the metro entrance. He glanced at the blind homeless man waiting for the train and then back to Ladybug.

"I honestly have no idea," He readjusted his hat and pulled his collar up higher, "but I don't understand this whole situation at all to be purrrr-fectly honest." A smile crept out of the corner of his mouth.

Ladybug smiled herself, "Couldn't help it, could you?"

He looked down at her and grabbed her hand in his again, "Nope."

He smirked.

Ladybug pulled her hand out of his this time, but the smile on her face didn't drop from her face.

Out of this whole situation, Chat Noir was still was at her side, and it set her heart on ease as she stared at her wanted posters and wondered what exactly was going to happen to them.

"The only thing about the crime scene I didn't see was the letter that was left there," She whispered, the blind homeless man was starting to walk towards them, using his white cane to feel around with. "I didn't watch long enough to find out what was written on it."

"Neither did I," Chat Noir said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin with his hand. "Maybe if we found out what was written on this letter we'd find a motivation or something-"

"Excuse me, could you spare some change for an old blind man?"

He was right behind them, holding out an empty paper cup. Dark sunglasses reflected their faces back at them.

Marinette smiled, holding her hands out in front of her, his breath smelled like acid. "Sorry, I used up all my change getting our tickets-"

She didn't expect the man to shove them, let alone shove them so hard that they tumbled back a few feet. She caught herself just in time not to fall onto the tracks, pulling Chat Noir back to balance as he teetered on the edge of the platform.

Confusion raced across her face, "What are you-"

He charged at them, dropping his paper cup and waving his cane at them.

They dodged his attack easy enough, but Marinette realized too late that he was about to run himself right off the track and onto the platform.

"No!"

She reached out to grab his coat, but she wasn't fast enough. It brushed through her fingers as his feet ran off the cement and he fell full speed into the tracks.

He collapsed, Marinette down the tracks and could see the bright headlights of the train approaching quickly.

"Chat! Help me out!"

Marinette leaped into the train tracks, pulling the half conscious man onto her shoulders. Chat Noir leaned over the platform, sticking his hand out for Ladybug to grasp. But the man was heavier than she had expected and she couldn't pull them both out of the 5-foot trench.

The train lights were getting brighter and brighter, blinding Marinette. She could hear the train gobble up the tracks with every second.

Chat Noir reached down and grabbed the man by his coat, hauling him up. Chat's face scrunched up in effort, his baseball cap on the ground.

The blind man regained enough consciousness to start kicking Marinette in the face as she tried to lift him out.

"Let me go! They're mine! The reward is mine!"

The train was seconds away, this was her last chance to escape being crushed.

She pushed him up with all her might, ignoring the firm kick in the jaw she just got. That was going to show, she knew it. They finally got him out of the tracks, Chat Noir pulling him clear of danger.

"Ladybug!"

He practically screamed her name, the train was close, only feet away. The conductor hadn't even noticed the wild scramble going on in the tracks ahead of him, he was in a daze, picking his nose.

Marinette was able to pull herself out just in time. She could feel the air brush past her body, knowing that she had just barely gotten clear in time to avoid impact.

"Where are you? I won't hurt you I just want the reward! Come back! Come back!" The homeless man was stumbling around the platform, white cane lying forgotten on the floor.

"Are you okay!?" Chat Noir clutched Ladybug's shoulders, his eyes wide. She was taken back slightly, he looked completely frazzled, eyes wide and frantic. "Ladybug, are you okay?!"

The metro doors opened.

"Yes! Now hurry up and grab your hat, common! We need to get out of here!" She shrugged him off and stood up, running over to grab her bag.

Chat Noir was left stunned for a moment.

This is what she does to him, he's going to have a heart attack before he turns 20 at this rate.

He grabbed his hat, Ladybug held the door open for him as he slipped in. She ran in and the doors quickly shut behind them. But they could still hear the blind man screaming for Ladybug and Chat Noir to come back.

Marinette let out a large breath, relieved they had made it in time. She looked around the train, empty. She looked up to Chat Noir, getting a hysterical chuckle escape her lips. He looked at her like she was completely insane.

"Well, that was…fun." She rolled onto the balls of her feet, "C'mon, put your hat on and let's sit down."

She grabbed his hand and pulled him to an empty seat. He just stumbled after her, completely dumbfounded.

"If you ever do that again m'lady I think I'm going to die of a heart attack."

She laughed, hearty and loud. Man, this had been some day so far, and it wasn't even 1:30am yet.

* * *

Ladynoir is my favorite ship, I've decided. Or maybe it's Marichat still. Idk.

Don't worry, they'll be Marichat later, I just need some feelings to work with. I tried to make Ladybug's feelings towards Chat as natural as I could without forcing her to like him, because that is really out of her character. But we need some feelings here people, all the feels!

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(Comments really mean a lot to me, they inspire me to keep writing fanfiction instead of essays! So I just wanted to give a shout out to the three commenters I've had so far! Sweetgal4694, 'Guest', and Lucinda! You guys are the best! *Hugs*)


	5. Chapter 5 : Bobbin Lace

Chapter 5

Marinette sighed as she sat down for her second day of detention. She was in a daze for the whole school day, the mystery of how the school's damage had suddenly disappeared wracked her brain the whole day. And it hadn't gone unnoticed by the students and staff either.

"How is this possible? The school was torn apart."

"…conspiracy…"

"...found them yet? My dad said they're dangerous.."

And to top it off, there was an announcement as class started, "We would like to thank Mr. Bourgeois for donating, making our overnight repairs possible. There will be a plague in his honor placed above the school's entrance later today.'

Chloe, who had been hobbling half heartedly on crutches all day, wouldn't let anyone forget how this school owed her father everything and she should be entitled to bla bla bla.

To be honest Marinette wasn't paying her much attention, she was focused on Alya (and Adrien, poor guy looked like he got hit by a truck, he fell asleep twice in class) and something was way off about her. She had been acting strange since the broadcast yesterday, and now she wouldn't even look at anyone. She had her head on her desk, she wouldn't respond to Marinette no matter what she said. Eventually Marinette just slipped a note into her best friend's hand.

 _Are you mad at me? Yes or No?_

 _Also, do you want to talk about it? Yes or No?_

Marinette didn't notice when Alya looked at her note, but as the bell rung to end class, Alya pushed the note in front of Marinette and left. She was the first person out the door.

She had circled _No_ for the first one and written in _later_ for Marinette's second question.

Marinette took out her books and a lollipop out of her school bag, handing the lollipop to Tikki in her purse. She felt bad her Kwami had to sit in her bag all day and then an additional hour of detention on top of that, she had promised the Kwami a piece of candy every day she was in detention, which Tikki was more then happy to accept from Marinette.

Ms. Mendeleiev had yet to show up yet and kids still stumbled in, looking less than enthusiastic.

Marinette reached back into her school bag and pulled out some paper, placing it on the table. She reached back to pull out a pen when a lollipop sitting on the bottom of her bag caught her eye.

Ms. Mendeleiev wouldn't catch her if she was sneaky. She needed this as a pick me up, she felt like she was about to fall asleep on her feet walking around school today. She practically inhaled her breakfast this morning, asking for seconds. She had finished two cups of coffee before school but she was still dead on her feet.

Marinette didn't normally drink coffee, she was more of a tea person, but she needed the bitter boost to get her through her door this morning.

She unwrapped her lollipop and placed it in her mouth, cherry flavored, her favorite.

"Alright everyone, settle down and get out your books."

A teacher walked through the door and closed it behind him. This was not Ms. Mendeleiev, in fact Marinette had never seen this teacher before.

Marinette turned around and faced Alix, pulling her lollipop out of her mouth.

"I've never seen him before, is he new here?"

Alix looked down at Marinette with a bored expression, her head resting on her palm.

"I don't know how long he's worked here, but he's kinda new. He teaches the younger kids on the other side of the building, his name is Mr. Guillroy. The teachers are supposed to rotate detention every day, but usually Ms. Mendeleiev gets stuck with it." Alix smirked, "I think she enjoys watching us squirm."

Marinette turned away from Alix and put her lollipop back in her mouth. There was nothing noteworthy about him, he was perfectly average, brown hair, brown eyes, tanned skin and tall. The only thing that made her look twice was the pink skinny tie he wore around his neck.

"Oh yeah," Alix leaned forward and whispered in Marinette's ear. "he loves pink."

Marinette tilted her head, what a strange teacher.

He looked up to the class, sitting down behind the desk. "Alright, you guys know the drill. Books out and phones away."

His eyes scanned the classroom, a bored look in his eyes until his eyes landed on Marinette. She made eye contact with him, she'd been caught staring, ugh, how embarrassing.

His eyebrows scrunched together, "You," He pointed at Marinette. "You know there is no eating in detention. Spit it out in the garbage can and get back to work."

Marinette sighed, her face turning bright pink. She had been busted.

What a great day this was shaping out to be.

* * *

Marinette was surprised when Tikki said that Chat Noir was calling her half way through detention. This had never happened before, normally she called him as Ladybug.

Marinette nodded at Tikki, securing her purse at her side she raised her hand.

Mr. Guillroy looked up at her from his desk, he was a few pages into a romance novel with one of those shirtless men and damsel in distress covers on it.

"May I go to the restroom?" Marinette asked, everyone turning to look at her.

Technically, they weren't allowed to use the restroom during detention unless it was an emergency. They were all supposed to go before but hey, this was an emergency. Just not the type they probably meant in the rulebook.

"Is it an emergency?" Mr. Guillroy looked back into his novel, flipping the page.

"Yes," Marinette stammered. Trying her best to look like she needed to use the restroom urgently. "absolutely. I'll be quick."

Mr. Guillroy just waved her on, taking that as a yes she dashed down the steps. Right as she was about the grab the handle to the door, Mr. Guillroy called out to her.

"Wait," Marinette turned around, alarm in her eyes. His eyes were cold and narrowed, she got chills down her arms. "Be back in three minutes or you have to stay an hour longer, Miss Dupain-Cheng. The clock starts now." He turned back to his trashy romance novel.

Marinette nodded, turning back to the door. She pulled it open, not bothering to waste time closing it gently. It slammed shut behind her and she ran down the hallway to the girls bathroom, she wouldn't help but shake the weird feeling she had about Mr. Guillroy. How did he know her name? She'd never seen him before this, let alone tell him her name.

Role call, she assumed. She shrugged off the weird feeling she had in her gut.

She pulled the girls bathroom door open and quickly opened all the doors to the stalls, checking if anyone was inside. After she was convinced she was alone, she opened her purse and Tikki flew out.

"Tikki, transform me!"

After she transformed, she leaned up against the bathroom door so that no one could enter while she was Ladybug. She pulled her yoyo from her hip and flipped it open, revealing a bored looking Chat Noir, hair disheveled and dust covering half his face. Again, someplace very dark, what was with him and dark places?

"Sorry to keep you waiting," She smiled.

"Hello my lady, is this a bad time? I've had a bit of a break though in our case." Her normal smiling Chat Noir was nowhere to be seen, panic and nervousness dominated his face and his eyes flicked side to side.

She was going to say no and for him to tell her everything but she suddenly remembered her deadline to get back to detention. She really didn't want to stay an hour longer with Mr. Guillroy. But his panicked expression made her worry, what was he doing and where exactly was he?

"Can this wait? I'm kinda in a pinch." Marinette looked at the time on her yoyo, she had already used up more than a minute.

Who gives someone three minutes to go to the bathroom?

"Not really, I can't re-transform to tell you the details until later tonight." He looked around, his voice dropped to a low whisper. "And I think you should know what's been going on, right now."

Marinette stomped her foot, groaning, just her luck she'd get stuck with the teacher who was strict about bathroom time today.

The door started to push against her, someone was trying to get into the bathroom.

"Closed! Go somewhere else!" She shouted.

"Ladybug…are you" Chat Noir tried to tilt his staff to see behind Ladybug "…you in a bathroom?"

"No, uh, well, yes," she glanced at the time again, less than a minute to get back to class. "Ugh, you know what, just text it to me."

Chat Noir was silent for a moment, he didn't think this day would ever come.

Marinette had actually thought about giving Chat Noir her cellphone number before. It would solve a lot of her communication issues if she could just send him a text to meet up instead of having to turn into Ladybug every time. And besides, now that it was more dangerous than ever to revealed as Ladybug she couldn't keep changing transforming in random places. And she would make sure it was very clear to Chat Noir that it would be for business only.

"Do you have something to write down my number?" She said, holding the door closed as the person tried to get into the bathroom again. "I said the bathroom was closed! Go somewhere else!"

Chat Noir looked around the office he was currently hiding in, the room lit by monitors, he found a sticky note and a pen easily enough off a desk.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Chat Noir's hands started to shake, along with the pressure of being found snooping around TVi's executive office, he was getting Ladybug's cellphone number?

He couldn't help the grin on his face as she listed off her number, repeating it twice to make sure he got it.

"Now Chat, this is for business only okay? No puns late at night okay?"

"Of course not!"

"Okay, I have to go. Just text me and fill me in, I'll get back to you later."

Marinette hung up on Chat Noir before he had the chance to say goodbye. She quickly untransformed, sticking Tikki back into her purse, she ran back to the classroom at full speed.

She opened the door and stepped inside, breathless.

"Well, with just a second to spare." Mr. Guillroy flipped a page in his novel, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. "My my, how lucky you are."

Marinette ignored the way her heart skipped a beat when he said that, she decided this teacher was really weird and she hadn't just been imagining it.

He looked away from her, "Take your seat."

Marinette quickly walked to her seat and proceeded to work on her homework, trying her best to ignore her cell phone has it vibrated wildly in her bag. She really didn't want to risk getting into anymore trouble today. She hunkered down, burning desire distracting her every time her bag vibrated, just twenty more minutes she told herself.

* * *

When Marinette got home, she went straight up to her room and checked her text messages. She set her stuff down and sat down at her desk, pulling open the messages with the unknown number. She looked at all of them, there must be at least a dozen or so paragraphs, overwhelmed, she started at the beginning.

 _CN here :3_

 _3:40pm_

 _So remember when we were talking about the letter found at the crime scene last night? When I got home I finished watching the broadcast and guess what? They only tell you half what was written on the note._

 _3:42pm_

 _The half that they broadcasted basically said, 'We are mad we don't get the acknowledgment we deserve' bla bla 'Mayor Bourgeois doesn't care about giving us.' Bla bla 'We will teach this city to ignore us, we are going to plant bombs in Paris and set them off randomly. Then we would like to see you handle an emergency without us'_

 _3:46pm_

 _That's why they're calling us terrorist! They think we are going to bomb all of Paris if they don't catch us first._

 _3:46pm_

 _I waited to see what the second half of the letter said but they didn't report it, they said it contained sensitive information that will be further analyzed and reported later_

 _3:49pm_

 _So I figured TVi would have a copy of the letter_

 _3:50pm_

 _I didn't really want to break into the police station to get the rest of it, way too risky. I may have nine lives but I'm not about to spend all of them in a jail cell._

 _3:54pm_

 _Okay, sorry, I'm getting off topic_

 _3:56pm_

 _Anyways, I broke into TVi and I found a copy of the entire letter. I'm sending a picture now._

 _3:57pm_

Marinette gasped, he broke into TVi? At three in the afternoon in broad daylight? Without her!? He was just begging to get caught and arrested. And he didn't even tell her about this little letter plan of his? That the hell!

Marinette suppressed her anger and opened the photo of the letter, her teeth grinding.

 _ **Dear Paris,**_

 _ **It has come to our attention that you don't value us as superheroes as of recently. TVi has broadcast several stories calling us vigilantes, children, and said we should be stopped and identities made public for accountability to the people. Major Bourgeois has in the past supported us, but now we can see that he never respected us and only kept up his support for us to gain public approval.**_

 _ **We will not be used for political gain of a corrupt leader. We will not be called children and criminals. We will show you how much power we have, and until you start to have respect for us.**_

 _ **We will set off bombs around Paris at random starting on the anniversary of our first appearance, unless all of Paris recognizes our contributions of keeping them safe. We want to be awarded unlimited resources of Paris's treasury and complete control of police. Also, we want Major Bourgeois to be replaced with someone who is actually confident to run this city.**_

\- _**Ladybug and Chat Noir**_

Marinette read the letter twice, she couldn't believe this. No wonder Alya was so crushed, it looks like Chat Noir and Ladybug have gotten power hungry and want complete control of Paris. Major Bourgeois may have money on the mind and his bad points, but he was a good major and was elected by majority of popular vote. To go after him was like going after the French flag.

Unlimited access to the taxpayers' money? Complete control of police? All of these demands were ludicrous and would never happen. Not to mention how poorly written it was, like Ladybug would ever write something like this. It was so hypocritical, Ladybug and Chat Noir want to keep the public safe, not explode it!

She squinted at the picture, she could see more writing but it was small and at the very bottom of the page. She zoomed in with her phone and started to read.

 _ **Ladybug and Chat Noir, if you are reading this then it is already too late. I will get your miraculous and you won't be Paris's saviors anymore. I will take your power, your reputation and expose you as the frauds you are.**_

 _ **Until then.**_

Marinette blinked, re-reading the bottom note.

She looked back at her text messages, Chat Noir must have had some idea of what was going on. Marinette felt lost, was someone else trying to get their Miraculous now? Did Hawkmoth have competition? Was this Hawkmoth? Who was this? Why would TVi not report this part? It made it seem perfectly obvious that Ladybug and Chat Noir didn't write this if that was the case.

Oh no.

Quickly she read the rest of his messages.

 _I'm not sure what's going on here Ladybug but I think someone is trying to ruin us. It might even be bigger then getting our Miraculous, I'm not even sure if it's Hawkmoth anymore._

 _4:03pm_

 _I'm going to take off now, I've stayed here to long. I'll text you when I'm out._

 _4:08pm_

 _Can we meet up later? We need to think of a gj;;;;;;adg_

 _4:12pm_

And that was it, that was the end of the text messages. She looked over at her computer screen and it read 4:41pm. It had been over a half an hour since he texted her last. And she was pretty sure that last text message wasn't a great sign.

Without thinking she called Chat Noir, she just had to check he was okay. She had a bad feeling about this whole situation.

She held the phone up to her ear and it rang and rang and rang.

She was about to hang up and just try texting him but then she could hear the phone pickup.

"Hello Ladybug."

That wasn't Chat Noir.

* * *

Dun dun dun.

Sorry, no fluff in this chapter but next chapter tho. It's. gunna. be. intense.

Comment, Favorite and Follow!

(I wanna give a shout out to Kiracles and AstroPsych for leaving such awesome comments last chapter! Like seriously thanks so much it means a lot that other people are as excited about to turnout of his mystery as I am! )


	6. Chapter 6: Detail

**Warning* Blood and descriptions of death**

Chapter 6

"Hello Ladybug."

That wasn't Chat Noir.

"Who is this?" Marinette's heart started going into overdrive, she grasped her cellphone to her head. "What have you done with Chat Noir?"

Her hands were trembling.

"I just found him snooping around, he was shocked to see me if you know what I mean." The voice snickered, cold and monotone. As if he was bored with this whole situation.

She could barely hear him over the own sound of her heart pounding in her chest.

"I had planned on having more fun with him but who would have guessed that a taser at the highest setting knocks people out? Or maybe it was when I kicked him in the head. Hmm I won-"

"Stop!" Marinette yelled into the phone, she looked over at the latch on her door and kicked it closed. Her parents were still downstairs in the bakery, but she couldn't risk them stumbling into this conversation.

Tikki flew around her head, panicked. "Marinette what's going on?! What happened to Chat Noir?!"

"What do you want from us?" She mumbled into her phone, lowering her voice. She sat down on her chaise lounge, her knees wobbling to hard for her to keep standing. Tased? Kicked in the head? She couldn't help the feeling of a pit growing in the bottom of her stomach and the sweat start to bead on her brow.

"Oh Ladybug, what else would I want? Your Miraculous of course." He was mocking her. She could hear groaning in the background, she pressed her cellphone as hard as she could to her head. "Oh sleeping beauty woke up. Here, you should talk to him."

"Chat Noir is that you?! Are you okay!? I'm coming to get you!" She shouted into her phone, tears welled in her eyes as the groaning turning into moaning.

"...L-Ladybug?" Chat Noir's voice was hoarse and quiet, just barely a whisper. "D-don't...trap..."

There was a bang and then yell, then line went silent.

"That's enough out of you."

Marinette's tears overflowed from her eyes, "Stop! Just stop! I'll give you whatever you want, just stop hurting him!" She tried to calm the trembling that wracked her body.

"Come to Tvi's executive office, be here in an hour or you'll never see your partner again."

The line went silent.

Marinette slowly let her hand drop to her side, letting her cellphone fall onto the floor. Her room was dark, she hadn't bothered turning on the light when she came inside. The screensaver on her desktop had turned on and read 4:59pm. The house was silent except for the occasional sound of a car's horn in the distance.

"Marinette what's going on? Who is hurting Chat Noir?" Tikki's eyes were large, taking over her face.

Marinette wiped at her tears and clenched her fists, how dare he take Chat Noir. How dare he hurt him.

She was going to ruin him.

Slapping herself on the face a few times and she tried to sober herself up, she needed to get herself together if she was going to pull off her plan.

Standing up, she made her way to her jewelry box, pulling out a pair of earrings. Then she moved to her crafting box.

"Marinette! Tell me what's going on!" Tikki couldn't stand it anymore.

"They took him," Marinette didn't stop what she was doing and continued to move about her room, gathering supplies. "But I'm going to get him back." She looked up at Tikki, eyes hard and voice flat.

Tikki hovered there a moment before she nodded.

"What's the plan?"

Marinette looked away, avoiding Tikki's gaze.

"You're not going to like it."

* * *

Marinette thanked the front desk attendant as she boarded the elevator. Pushing the 7th floor button, the doors slowly closed in front of her.

She had said to the front desk attendant she was supposed to visit her classmate Alya, the new intern, and help her with her news piece. The he looked confused but waved her past, telling her that the intern offices were on the 7th floor. But a quick glance to the map behind the desk told her the executive office was located on the 30th floor.

She stood alone in the elevator, holding the close door button closed. She watched as the sign above the door counted upwards.

1

2

3

4

5

6

It climbed and climbed. Marinette's nerves were oddly calm. She had resolved that she was going to get Chat Noir out of there with her Miraculous intact, along with getting revenge on whoever dared lay a finger on her partner.

She had a basic plan, go up to the 7th floor, so Marinette wouldn't look suspicious in the security cameras going all the way to the executive office. Once she got there she was going to transform in the bathroom room. She hadn't figured out how she was going to get from the bathroom room to the stairwell without getting caught but she was going to do whatever it takes to get Chat Noir out of there.

"Just hold on." She mumbled, the doors opened on the 7th floor, she took a long stride forward, looking for a bathroom.

She finally spotted one and she grabbed the handle.

"I'll be there soon."

* * *

Ladybug finally found a way out of the bathroom. The floor was a lot more busy than she had imagined it was going to be, so just making a blind dash out of the bathroom was out of the question. She had squeezed through an air vent. She used her yoyo to pull up the blueprint of the building, finding an escape route. She followed the blueprint until she made her way to an elevator shaft. From there she used her yoyo to pull herself up to the 30th floor, careful not to be crushed by an ascending elevator.

When she finally got there she used brute strength to pull the elevator doors apart. It was more difficult than she had anticipated and, without meaning to, she had looked down the elevator shaft. 30 floors up in the air was nothing for a superhero who had launched herself off the Eiffel tower a few times before. But her footing wasn't sure and her grip on the elevator doors was slipping.

Chat Noir's yelling filled her mind and she found the strength to open the elevator doors.

Poking her head out, she looked both ways down the hallway. Brightly lit and deserted, she took a step outside the elevator doors. It was silent, slowly she made her way out and they snapped shut behind her, like a prison door, trapping her.

Looking both ways again, she slowly started making her way down the hallway. She jogged up and down the halls until she spotted a large fancy pair of large oak wood doors. One of the doors was slightly ajar, but it was heavy. She pushed herself into the door with her shoulder, it moved slowly as if it was made of stone. It revealed darkness, the hallway fluorescent lighting some of the large empty office. She could see light farther into the room coming from inside was computer monitors behind a large desk. They were playing security camera footage.

Her stomach was a vice, every muscle flexed and ready to spring. She took a cautious step forward, wary that she made be ambushed from the side. She didn't want to leave the protection from the brightly lit corridor. Maybe she should have come in-

"Close the door behind you Ladybug. I don't want anyone to find out the most wanted criminal in all of Paris is giving me a house call."

Marinette jumped at the sound of his voice, coming from deep within the remaining darkness of the office. Begrudgingly she turned around and pushed the door shut behind her.

She felt she might as well be sealing her own tomb.

Darkness surrounded her on all sides. She swallowed, the room was ghost-silent, the only sound was the humming of computers and her thundering pulse.

She took a cautious step forward, then another. Nerves tight, about to snap at any sudden noise.

Her body was so tight she felt she was going to explode. She couldn't handle this.

"Enough of this!" Her own fear and anger boiled inside of her, threatening to overflow. She stood her ground in, shouting into the room "Reveal yourself and give me back Chat Noir or the deal is off!"

A quiet chuckle came from right beside her ear, startled, Ladybug jumped away as fast as she could.

The lights flashed on, blinding her. It took her a second before her eyes could adjust.

He was just a man wearing a suit, attractive and clean-shaven but she didn't recognize him. He looked perfectly normal, not akumatised or anything along those lines. Even his face had a slight smile on it, just...normal. He looked like the type of man that middle aged women would have an affair with and leave their husbands for, but he would leave them the second he got what he wanted.

She couldn't believe that this was the guy who had put her and Chat Noir though so much pain.

Marinette didn't let her guard down, she pulled her yoyo from her belt and started to spin it around in her hand, letting anger steel her actions and her voice.

"Where is he?" She tried to not let hesitation or fear take her courage away. She slowly started to circle the man, pushing a plush desk chair out of her way "Where is Chat Noir?"

"Nice to see you again Ladybug." The man hadn't moved from the light switch on the wall, smirking. "Your precious Chat Noir is right here."

See you again? Ladybug was briefly caught off guard but she shook it off, he was just trying to confuse her.

He moved away from the wall and started to move towards the large oak desk in the middle of the room, his smirk never dropping off his face. His smile infuriated Marinette, how dare he mock her?! How dare he smile after he threatened her partner and herself.

She spun her yoyo even faster, digging her heals into the lush carpet, snarling.

He chuckled at her expression, "How cute."

She was ready to take him out in a single moment, all it would have taken was a flick of her wrist and he'd have yoyo on the brain. Literally.

He walked around the desk, never turning his back to Ladybug. He approached the large high back leather office chair, grabbing it and spinning around to face Ladybug.

Chat Noir stared back at her.

His arms had been duct taped to the armrests of the chair, his ankles bound together. He was bleeding from someplace on his forehead. It dripped down his mask and dyed his brilliant blond hair red. She could see the bruises blossoming the ugly shade of purple-black under his mask and on the side of his face. Duct tape had been wrapped several times around his mouth.

As soon as he saw her he started to struggle against his bonds, she could tell he was mumbling something, trying to shout out to her. Eyes wide, scared and frantic he was shaking his head.

Marinette stopped swinging her yoyo, she felt tears come to her eyes.

He started to struggle harder against his bonds, yelling more and more. Marinette started to run to him, to release him, to set him free. But as she got closer the more frantic he got.

"That's enough out of you."

Marinette didn't even see him pull the gun out from his waistband, but it was in his hand in an instant. Before she could even register what had it was, he fired at Chat Noir.

She had never heard something so loud before. The sound hit her, traveled through her, crashing into her like a tidal wave.

Screaming was next. It didn't even register that it was her own before she was sucked back into the moment.

He had shot him in the foot, Chat Noir thrashed wildly, his own muffled screaming rivaled Ladybug's. His green eyes were so large she thought they might pop out of his face.

"Shut up I said!"

The man took a swing at Chat Noir's head with the butt of his gun.

The sound of metal colliding with skull made bile rise to the back of her throat.

Ladybug watched in horror as Chat Noir's scream was quickly quieted. Chat Noir looked up at the man, shrinking back and shaking in his bonds.

Shock, sadness, but mostly fiery anger took over her body.

She lunged at the man, she ran at him her yoyo ready to take him out. She had never felt this level of anger before, revenge, revenge, revenge, it was the only thing she could think of. Get him, hurt him, destroy him for hurting Chat Noir.

"I would stop if I were you."

Click, he reloaded his gun. He still had that smirk on his face, not a hair even out of place or is suit jacket wrinkled. If he wasn't holding the gun to Chat Noir's head she would have thought he was a manikin. Too clean, too perfect to be a kidnapper. But his eyes were cruel, dark and unforgiving, like a wolf that had his teeth already around his prey's neck.

Marinette froze, she was only a few steps in front of the desk. She could jump at get to Chat Noir. If it wasn't for this stupid desk she would have used her yoyo to wrap around the bottom of the chair and roll him to her. She cursed her lack of planning, her lack of leverage.

"See Ladybug…you have something I want." He never pulled the gun away from Chat Noir's head, he started to inspect at his fingernails on his other hand.

Chat Noir looked back and forth at him and Ladybug. She could see the fear in his eyes, and he was gesturing to the door with his eyes. She could read his expression, run, run, run, it was if he was practically screaming it at her.

Marinette locked eyes with Chat Noir, shaking her head. She wasn't going to run, she was going to get him back, no matter what.

"My Miraculous," She looked back to the villain and locked eyes with him. "Of course…but if I may ask you why-"

He pressed the gun into Chat Noir's head and Chat Noir went completely still. He was glaring daggers at the man out of the corner of his eyes but Marinette could see Chat Noir shaking in fear.

"Stop staling. Give. Me. Your. Miraculous." He looked away from his nails and held out his hand. "Or you won't have a partner much longer."

Marinette was staling. She had originally planned to make him upset and careless, then he would be vulnerable for her attack. But she didn't anticipate a gun, or anything about this situation. She had never felt with something like this before, and her fear started to take over her body.

"Okay, just put down the gun-" Marinette put her hands up, taking cautious steps forward. Just get closer, get closer and grab him and end this.

"GIVE. ME. YOUR. EARRINGS."

He lost all control of his face, once calm and composed, turned into a snarling deformed expression. He shoved the gun harder into Chat's head and she could see Chat flinch. Pure rage seeped out of the man and Marinette started to feel panic eat at her reason.

She didn't know what to do, Chat Noir was watching. She was going to expose her identity forever and she could never-

"GIVE THEM TO ME!"

Marinette flinched, she glanced up at Chat Noir and he was shaking his head wildly. No, don't do it, he said. Run, escape and don't look back, she could practically hear him say it to her. He always did this, he always wanted to be the one that protected her but now it was her turn to protect him. But she couldn't protect him if she wasn't Ladybug. Marinette couldn't save him in this situation. She had never expected a gun, or a man willing enough to use it. No, this threw her plan out the window. She needed to get him back, and Ladybug was the only one-

BANG.

She had hesitated too long, or maybe the man was hungry for blood shed.

She watched in horror as the man fired a shot directly into Chat Noir's head.

Blood, blood everywhere. His body went limp in his restrains and his head rolled away from her. She could see his limp jaw hang open. Wide green eyes staring at nothing. Blood poured out of his head and onto his body, pooling onto the floor. Brilliant blond hair now soaked in dark red. Shining green eyes now turned dull. He was dead.

She screamed, dropping to her knees.

She turned her eyes away.

She still saw it with her eyes closed.

She could hear the gunshot in her head.

BANG.

Over and over again.

Limp, eyes dull and blood, blood everywhere.

She ran out of breath, chest tight and panic bubbling in her stomach. Her breathing turned more and more rapid as she saw it over, and over, and over in her head. She tried to think logically, how could she save him. Damn it Marinette, you can't save someone who's dead!

"Why are you doing this?"

She stared at her hands. Her red suit locking her. She closed her eyes. She couldn't escape the red. She couldn't stand to see it anymore.

She couldn't stand see the pool of blood around Chat Noir's body.

He laughed.

Marinette looked up at him in terror. He lifted one foot. Then the other. She was walking over to her, gun still in hand. He was calm again, not a drop of blood on him. Still pristine, still clean, eyes still like a predator.

She scrambled away from him, crawling back into a wall. She couldn't take control of her body enough to get up. He was getting closer and closer to her, like a vapor ready to strike.

"No! Get away from me!" She thrust her arms out in front of her, turning her head away.

He stopped only feet away from her. She could see a single speckle of blood on his brown leather shoes.

"How does it feel Ladybug? To lose someone you cared about?!" His voice was loud, overwhelming her.

"What are you talking about?!" Panic drove her forward, her arms and legs flailing as she scrambled away from him on all fours. She stumbled up to her feet, running to the other side of the office, get away, get away, get away. She bumped into everything, knocking tables and desks over behind her. To stall him, to keep him away from her.

She could see Chat Noir's body even more clearly from this side of the room.

"Of course you wouldn't know. Heroes never think they do anything wrong." He stood in his original spot, clenching his fist. "But don't you worry, I'll get revenge. And no one will think you're a hero anymore Ladybug."

He looked at her through the corner of his eyes. Gaze like a razor. Cruelness rolled off from his soul. Back straight, arms and legs taunt. He took a step forward, holding out his gun.

Marinette locked on the gun, her eyes so wide she thought she was going to burst them at the seams. Her heart pounding. Breathing rapid and uncontrollable. Nothing he was saying was making any sense. She was going to die here. She was going to die here with Chat Noir. She would be found dead in an office. This man would be a hero. Her parents would think she was a terrorist. Adrien would think she was a criminal.

Think, think, think. Something to stall him, so that she might have the chance to get away.

Her miraculous.

He took another step forward, gun slowly rising to take aim at her skull. She had to act fast, she had one chance to get this right.

"Wait, wait!" She screamed, she quickly put her hands to her ears. "You want my Miraculous right?"

She pulled her earring from her ear, but the backing was on tight. She pulled again, desperate to get it off. It was if Tikki was telling her not to do it. But she pulled harder, and it released its hold. She pulled the back earring off, and her transformation became undone. She was Marinette again, the normal Marinette who had no business in these affairs. Just Marinette.

She pulled the other earring from her ear, holding them tightly in her hand.

Locking eyes with the man, who now watched her carefully, she threw her earrings across the room.

She didn't look where she threw them, but she could hear them clatter off the wall on the other side of the office. Now was her chance, she could get away while he was looking for them, she made the move to get up, her knees still shaking. Be strong, Marinette, she kept repeating in her head, get out of here, get help, get out. She looked up at him as she was about to bolt to the door.

But he made no move to get her Miraculous.

Marinette deflated, hope that she had once had for escape shattered in her chest, that was supposed to work. He was supposed to go after them, get them, give her a chance to bolt to the doors and escape. But there he was, only a few feet away, gun still pointed at her. But he looked amused, like a hunter watching an animal struggle in his trap.

He chuckled at her, "That was smart, but I'm smarter." He took another step forward, closing the distance between his gun and her head, Marinette started to tremble, pushing herself harder and harder against the wall. "Now that you're unprotected the real fun can begin."

BANG.

He shot at her, but he had missed. She watched in horror as the dry wall next to her head exploded fragments everywhere.

Marinette dove out of the way, landing chest first onto the floor, avoiding another bullet. She looked wildly around the room, looking for somewhere to hide for-

He kicked her in the side of her rib cage.

Pain, that was the only thing that came to her mind. It made her vision go black. She screamed.

He kicked her again, this time in the jaw. It made her brain rattle around her skull. She couldn't move, couldn't think. Just pain, it consumed her. Fear captured her. And as she was getting ready to be hit again, she had a thought. This is what Chat Noir must have felt like. She was supposed to save him and she failed. So much pain and fear and he thought she was going to save him and she let him down.

The next hit didn't come. Marinette was pulled up by her hair. She groaned, she still hadn't recovered from her kick in the head. She noticed a metallic taste, blood leaked out from the side of her mouth.

He looked at her face, eyes cold. He regarded her as if she was a fascinating piece of trash.

Marinette coughed, blood bubbled out of her mouth and onto the front of her shirt. He grinned.

"Oh Ladybug," he coo'ed. "You're making this way to fun."

She trembled, clutching her side. It throbbed, and every breath was like agony. He pulled her hair harder, and she whimpered.

"W-why are you doing this?" More blood rushed out of her mouth, she must have bit her tongue.

"Why?" He cocked his head to the side like a bird, his smile never fading. "I guess you don't recognize me. I'm the father of the little girl you killed."

Marinette's head still swam, she must not have heard him right. She had never killed anyone, let alone a little girl.

"I d-didn't-"

He pulled her hair so hard she was forced to her knees, she let out another cry. Her side felt like it was going to explode. Her head and face throbbed, and her thoughts swam in her head. Her vision was blurry and her legs and arms wouldn't work.

"Oh, but you did." He shook her around by her head and Marinette thought she was going to pass out. He pulled her face close to his, she was just inches away from him. His eyes large and gray and furious. He asked again, "Do you remember now?!"

"No, I didn't-" Marinette cried.

He threw her to the floor and she fell on her injured side. She cried out, the world was spinning. She curled into a ball, tears rushing from her eyes. This had to be a dream, this was just all a bad dream and she was going to wake up and laugh about it with Alya about how weird her dreams were.

"Well, let me remind you. My name is John Valentine, I own Tvi. 3 days ago there was a news report on my network, headline 'Child dies trying to be Ladybug'," He stood over her and grabbed her neck, pulling her to his face. Marinette tried to pull away, trying to pry his fingers off her. But his grip was tight, her air cut off. Every word he spoke he spat on her face. "You see Ladybug, Angela loved you. She wanted to be just like her favorite superhero. She loved the way you swung from building to building with your yoyo. It was her absolute favorite."

He stopped for a moment, his voice becoming hoarse. His grip on her neck loosened for a second and she gulped in air before he closed his hands around her neck again.

"But when she wrapped her yoyo around the stair banister, when she swung, her yoyo snapped. She fell four stories and broke her neck. Dead instantly. And you killed her."

Marinette felt whatever fight she had left in her leave her body. Her lungs screamed for air. She didn't hear about this, she didn't know.

He let go of her neck and dropped her on the ground, her head snapping against the floor. She gulped for hair and blood filled her mouth again, she coughed. She sprayed blood over the carpet. She couldn't believe it, a little girl had died trying to be like Ladybug. She never wanted anyone to try to pretend to be like her, she never thought protecting the city would get someone killed. She didn't want this, she never asked for this to happen…

He stepped off of her. He stumbled back, clutching his face with his hands.

"You killed her and no one would listen to me, I told them you killed her, but they said I was a neglectful Dad. They said it was my fault, that I should have been watching her. But I was, I just turned away for one second and…It's your fault." He stopped pacing around the office. He locked on her body again and a sick grin grew on his face. "But now the city hates you and I'll make you suffer. Everyone will know who the real monster is and you will feel what I felt, again and again and again."

He stomped towards her again, hands out to grab her. She screamed. Pulling herself up to her elbows she tried to crawl away from him.

She slid her body across the floor as fast as she could, heading directly for the large desk and Chat Noir. Her chest ached with every movement, her head dizzy. The room felt like it was spinning and she was gulping for air.

She was almost there, dragging herself through the pool of Chat Noir's blood. She was swimming in it. She reached for Chat Noir, reaching for his foot, almost there almost there.

She wasn't sure why she thought reaching for Chat Noir would save her but it felt right to at least try to do something.

Just as she touched Chat Noir's shoe she felt him grab her ankles. She screamed again. He dragged her away from the desk, away from Chat Noir.

But Chat Noir wasn't there anymore.

He was gone, and so was the pool of blood she was crawling in.

Dead, she must be dead and she can't see anything anymore because she was done, she'd reached her limit.

He dragged her to the middle of the room and flipped her over. Marinette was sobbing uncontrollably, holding her hands out to protect her.

He sat down on her hips, "I guess you found out my little trick huh Ladybug?" He grabbed her hands with one of his, holding them down. She screamed, struggling against his iron grip. "Hawkmoth and I made a little agreement, he gave me these powers and said 'get your revenge however you want, I just want the Miraculous's' and that's it! He gave me the power of your nightmares. Anything that is your worst nightmare Ladybug, and I can create it. That's how I destroyed the middle school, I made my network hunt you down, I made your biggest fan an intern and made her report to the world that you are a terrorist. My illusions are perfect, but as you just saw, if you touch them, they disappear. But I don't disappear Ladybug. I'm your worst nightmare now."

Then he punched her once, twice, three times in the face.

But it didn't matter how much he hurt her, because she knew Chat Noir wasn't dead.

She could have laughed she was so relieved. But her mouth was full of blood and she couldn't move her face or use her lungs.

He was moving her somewhere, dragging her along by the back of her shirt. She stumbled along with him, but she couldn't feel anything other than relief. She smiled, and blood leaked out from in-between her teeth and dripped onto her shirt. She couldn't see any more of the white fabric anymore. Just blood, but it was her own blood. Not Chat Noir's. No. He wasn't dead.

She watched him shoot Chat Noir in her head again. It still felt so real. She remembered the sound of the gunshot, how the life in his eyes faded…

She shook her head, no he wasn't dead. He wasn't dead and he probably wasn't ever here and she was just played by him-

He opened up a door and threw her inside. She fell inside the darkness, her side in agony. But she could feel something warm hold her up.

She looked up, two pairs of glowing green eyes looked down at her.

"I need to get that Miraculous to Halkmoth, he won't stop screaming at me about it." He rolled his eyes, pulling at his suit jacket and straightening out his shirt collar. "Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back."

He slammed the door behind him, and Marinette could hear him chuckle at his own joke as he locked the door.

Marinette's head pounded, but she tried her best to stand up and register what exactly was happening.

Marinette was in a dark closet with Chat Noir, who was very much alive, and he was holding not an injured Ladybug but an injured Marinette.

She groaned, this was not how she planned this going.

"Oh my God, Marinette!" Chat Noir held her up as her knees gave out. "What are you doing here!?"

He was dirty, that's for sure. He looked like he had been dragged through a pile of dust. He had a purple bruise growing out from his temple, mostly hidden by his mask. But he didn't have any blood on him. He looked like he had been through hell and back but no blood. His eyes were clear and alert and he looked so concerned, and Marinette didn't understand why.

Marinette, with the help of Chat Noir, got back on her feet and stood up. She leaned on him, trying to get her balance again, waiting for her head to stop spinning.

Unconsciously, she reached up and put her hand where the man had shot him through the head. She felt around for something, anything that could be an injury. But she only felt soft warm hair.

She could finally breathe again.

Chat Noir placed his hand over hers, holding it tight. She was forced out of her thoughts, he was talking to her, but it was like trying to see something through a thick fog.

She blinked a few times, shaking her head.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said, what are you doing here Marinette!?" Chat Noir looked like he was going to explode with worry, and she had to take a second to take in his intensity. "What did he do to you, why are you here!?" He stumbled over his words, speaking so quickly she almost felt out of breath for him.

Marinette scrambled for an answer, tell him that she was Ladybug? No, out of the question.

So she went with the first thing she could come up with.

"I came for Ladybug," Marinette rubbed her jaw here John had kicked her, more blood dribbling out of her mouth. She wiped at it with her sleeve. "I was supposed to give him a fake Miraculous and distract him while she attacked him from behind. She figured out that everything he did was an illusion and when she escaped, he took his anger out on me." Marinette couldn't bother coming up with a good excuse, this was the best she could come up with after a kick in the head and three punches to the face.

Chat Noir gasped, he looked like he had just swallowed something sour. "Ladybug would never leave you behind with that monster, how could she-"

Marinette quickly saw the flaw in her explanation, she scrambled to come up with a better explanation.

She tried again. "She didn't run away, he captured her and he was hurting me but she escaped but he got me and i-"

She had to stop, none of the words coming out of her mouth were making sense. She started coughing, her tongue still hadn't stopped bleeding, and she was choking on her own blood. It gushed out and into her hands.

"Wait, Marinette look at me." It was still dark, she could just make out the edges of his mask and the bruise forming on his face, but that was about it.

She watched him study her face. It wasn't to dark to cover up the look of horror on his face that grew every moment he looked at her. She could tell he was starting to panic, his breathing was becoming rapid.

"Dear God…"

Marinette pulled away from him and put her full weight on her legs. They had stopped shaking and her footing felt sure. Actually, now that she thought about it, she was feeling a lot better. Her face and ribs still hurt like hell but she had stopped shaking and regained control of her body, her vision clearing and the dizzy feeling in her head was just replaced with a thick and powerful throbbing.

"Ugh, my head is killing me." She moaned, clutching her head.

"Are you alright? Can you stand okay? Here, sit down." Chat Noir grabbed her by the arm and sat her down against the back wall of the closet. Marinette was grateful, she couldn't think clearly with the aching consuming her every thought.

"There must be something here that can help you," Marinette watched Chat Noir move around the closet, checking all the shelves. "and after we get out of here you're going to tell me all about this plan you and Ladybug came up with." He pulled what looked to be a stapler off the top shelf, shaking his head he put it back.

Marinette could only smile at him, it didn't matter that she had no idea how she was going to explain this to Chat Noir later. He was alive and she was with him.

She closed her eyes and rested her head on the wall, letting the relief wash over her. Just a quick rest…

"Marinette!" Chat Noir grabbed her, shaking her shoulders wildly. Her eyes snapped open, but she felt dizzy again. The throbbing came back with a vengeance. Her side ached, hurting every time she breathed. She spat a mouthful of blood to the side and looked up at Chat Noir.

She could tell he was giving her a once over, evaluating her. She wasn't sure how bad she looked, but whatever he saw made his expression shift from panic to hysteria.

"I need to get you out of here right now and to a hospital," Chat Noir's eyes darted around the room, he moved around every corner, inspecting, searching, for what Marinette couldn't tell.

She heard a tinkering noise, and she looked down at Chat's foot. He had a ball and chain around his ankle. Like one of those old timey prisoners in the old Hollywood movies. She had to hold back a scoff, where does a person even get a ball and chain?

It dragged around the room with him, she watched as he struggled to move forward.

"Why don't you just use your cataclysm to get rid of it?" Marinette pointed at ball and chain.

Chat Noir stopped moving around the room, he looked down at it. He frowned, "I was going to do that, but what was the use? If I destroyed it and broke down the door, which is surprisingly thick may I add, then I'd just run right into him and get tased again." He growled.

Marinette moaned again, her head ache doubling in pain and her side keeping her from curling into a ball. She tried to get ahold of herself.

"Didn't he just say he was leaving to give Ladybug's Miraculous to Hawkmoth?"

"What!?" Chat Noir snapped, "He has her Miraculous?"

Was this boy not listening to a word she was saying?

"No, I told you she got away, it's a fake-"

Originally that was her plan. She was going to come in, give him a fake Miraculous, and while he was distracted, retransform and take him down. She had the fake pair in her hand since she had stepped foot in the office, but the hardest part was trying not to mix them up when she had one pair in one fist and the other the other fist. But illusions and guns had never been apart of her plan. She tightened her grip on her Miraculous in her left hand. The earrings stabbed into her palm.

She had to stop, she was choking on her own blood again. Every time her lungs expanded it felt like she was being kicked in the side again and again. She moaned in pain, clutching her side. She brought her knees up and placed her head on her arms. She forced herself to take some deep breathes, even though it was like being hit with a truck with every inhale, she was becoming light headed again.

Chat Noir's fingers floating over her shoulder, afraid to touch her.

She looked up at him, "If we are going to escape, it has to be right now. While he's gone. Ladybug isn't coming to help us out we need to get out." She tried to make it was clear as she could, praying Chat Noir wouldn't ask her anymore questions.

Chat Noir nodded, raising his hand.

"Catacly-"

An idea occurred to her. Who had a ball and chain anymore?

"Wait!" She yelled, but then immediately regretting it. Hissing at the pain in her side, she clutched her chest. Chat Noir froze in place, a horrified look on his face.

Marinette leaned forward and touched the chain, dissolving into smoke the second her finger made connection.

So to everyone else the illusions were real, but to her they would dissolve.

Immediately she looked up at Chat Noir who had watched the entire thing unfold. She opened her mouth to explain but she couldn't think of anything that wouldn't give away her identity.

"Well…let's get out of here!" Marinette pointed at the door, hoping a distraction would suffice for now.

Chat Noir, for his credit didn't ask any questions, but she knew she was going to have to explain this to him eventually.

But she'd think about it later.

* * *

This chapter was...hard. I learned writing about action, suspense or pain does not come naturally to me. So there is that.

Forgive me if I missed something in my editing, I really just wanted to get this out as fast as I could.

ANYWAYS,

I PLANNED TO HAVE MY VILLAIN HAVE THE POWER OF ILLUSION AND THEN VOLPINA CAME OUT I WAS SO MAD OH MY GOD.

l;ksn'glskndg

A lot was revealed in this chapter, and everything will be addressed in time, I swear.

I just want to thank my commenters for being just the best, you guys make writing fanfictions worth it. If it wasn't for you I'd think I only wrote it to play out my sick fantasies. hahahah...

Comment, Favorite and Follow!


	7. Chapter 7: Cordonnet

Chapter 7

Adrien couldn't believe this was happening.

His head ached from where Valentine kicked him in the skull and his whole body was sore. His heart thundered in his chest at even the thought of being in the same room as that man again. He could hear the echo of the words ringing in his head over and over again until he had to start humming, moaning, or screaming to get his brain to stop.

 _You're worthless. You got kidnapped by the bad guy, can't defend yourself, weakling…Now Ladybug is going to fall into my trap and I'm going to kill her right in front of you._

He moaned, trying to stop his brain from repeating everything again. He punched himself in the head, trying anything to get it out, again and again he clawed at his face, trying to force the voice out. The guilt, the screams he could hear through the door. He pulled at his ball and chain again and it didn't bulge, another gunfire went off, then another and another. He was going to kill her, and Adrien couldn't move.

 _I'll kill her slowly too, I'll start by pulling out all of her fingernails. Then I'll pull out her teeth… I'll make you watch, Chat Noir, and you'll know that it's your fault because you were to weak to save her._

He wanted to get up, to help her, save her. But he couldn't. His body wouldn't stop shaking. His knees wouldn't support him. He couldn't see straight. He was paralyzed, terrified of what Valentine would do to her if he resisted. Valentine said that for every time he tried to help her, he was going to cut off one of Chat Noir's fingers. But if he was really being honest with himself, he was scared if he did resist that his best wouldn't be enough to save her. That he really was the weakling, that no matter what he did he couldn't save Ladybug like the countless times she's saved him.

 _Oh Chat Noir, you poor, poor boy. Don't you see? You're just a burden to her. She would have never come here if it wasn't for your carelessness. Now she's on her way to save you and she's going to die a slow and painful death because of you, Chat Noir, it's your fault she's going to die!_

Chat Noir wished he could argue with the voices in his head, to tell them to stop. But they never stopped. He had had these thoughts ever since the first time he attacked her when he was controlled by an akuma. He ignored those voices in his head, the ones that reminded him how useless he was, that he was a burden to Ladybug most of the time.

That's why he went to TVi by himself to get the letter. Because he wanted to prove himself to be useful, that he was beyond being the captured sidekick. But look at where he ended up? In a closet, with a ball and chain around his leg and beaten up.

 _…she's coming to save you, but you're leading her to her death…_

The voice started over again, repeating the words over again. Adrien pulled at his mask, suddenly his alter ego felt suffocating. Adrien didn't stand up for himself, against Natalie, Chloe or his father. He was a nice boy, polite and considerate. Putting others before himself, that is who Adrien was. But Chat Noir was selfish, he took what he wanted and didn't give a damn about what people expected him to be. He could be called Ladybug's sidekick, but it didn't matter. Chat Noir didn't care. Chat Noir lived for himself and what he wanted. That was his strength, that was the strength that Adrien borrowed.

But it wasn't enough, never enough strength to do what Adrien really wanted, to get what he and Chat Noir wanted.

And now he is going to listen to Ladybug die because he was weak, stupid and selfish.

More screaming came from the other side of the door. Chat Noir forced himself to his feet, unable to stand it anymore. Clutching the door he pulled his weight on top of his shaking knees and started pounding on the door. He screamed and yelled at the top of his lungs, until the only thing he could hear was his own screams for help. His head throbbed and his throat was raw.

He couldn't believe himself.

* * *

After getting rid of Chat Noir's ball and chain, Chat Noir tried to break down the door. Even with his super strength he couldn't get it to break down. While he was throwing himself against the closet door, Marinette dug her earrings out of the flesh of her palm. A small bubbling of blood marked her skin. It stung, but she hurried to put them back on before Chat Noir turned back around.

Tikki reappeared with a flash. Marinette grabbed her before Tikki even had a chance to get a look at her, shoving her into her purse. She didn't need Tikki to give her away now, and she was sure her kwami could save her lecture for later.

Chat Noir was about to use his Cataclysm on the door when Marinette stopped him again. She couldn't afford Chat Noir to de-transform if Valentine showed up again suddenly. She wracked her brain trying to figure out a way out of this closet.

Marinette looked around the room until a metal grate caught her eye.

If she hadn't climbed threw one earlier that day, she would have never thought to use it as an escape route. When she had saw it at first she thought she wasn't even going to fit, but with a bit of wiggling she could make it through. She prayed Chat Noir could fit, because she couldn't bare the idea of having to crawl through air vents in her current state.

But as she explained her plan to Chat Noir, even after numerous attempts on his part, he just couldn't fit. He was too large in the shoulders, and even getting his head in and out was a struggle.

So, using the energy she had left, she sucked up her pain and had Chat Noir push her up to the vent.

"Marinette," Chat Noir was begging her not to do this, that she shouldn't be aggravating her injuries, "please just stop, I'll use Cataclysm on the door and rush us out of here."

She shook her head and proceeded to climb into the vent. Marinette could do this, it was agony but she was going to get them out of here. There was only a short stretch of vent till it reached the room next door, but Marinette couldn't move her left arm. Her side was in stitches. She must have broken or bruised something important because she didn't think the pain could get any worse.

In the end she had to have Chat Noir push her through the vent by her feet. She gritted her teeth and he pushed. Every time her body ran over a seam in the air vent she clenched her jaw tighter and tighter. It ached from Valentine's kick but it was nothing compared to the rest of what her body was going though.

Marinette punched the air grate with her right hand until it gave way and clattered onto the ground. She tried to ease herself out of the vent and into the office room but it was no use. She crumbled to the ground, a desk chair breaking her fall. She groaned, her limbs positioned in awkward angles. Marinette couldn't catch a break.

"Are you okay?! Marinette?!" She could hear Chat Noir's voice ring through the air vent.

"Yeah," She moaned, "I'm okay. Just give me a second."

She picked herself up off the floor and quickly found her way back to the executive office. She hoped and prayed Valentine wasn't back yet, she could only imagine the level of fury she would face from both Hawkmoth and Valentine for her fake miraculous trick.

She shuttered at the thought.

She opened the executive oak door slowly, peeking her head in first. It was still dark, but the drapes that had covered the wall of windows had been drawn back. It was twilight and the lights of Paris glittered like an ocean of stars.

It was beautiful.

Marinette quickly shook all thoughts of beauty of her head. She had to get them out of there or else this would be the last thing she'd ever see.

She quickly found the closet door, but Valentine had leaned his large solid oak desk against the door. No wonder Chat Noir couldn't break it down, even if he had destroyed the door, there was no way he would be able to move this desk. It was to large, to dense. Marinette didn't have any idea how she was going to move it by herself.

She could hear Chat Noir's voice faintly coming from the other side of the door, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.

She thought she heard the doors creak, and Marinette's heart was about to stop in her chest. She froze, looking slowly over her shoulder. Her knees were beginning to shake again. But it was nothing, the door hadn't moved since she'd opened it.

Urgency filled her mind, they needed to go right now.

She looked around for anything to help her move the desk, like a crowbar or something that could get it out of the way.

She to climbed to the top of the desk and wedged herself between the it and the wall, pushing with her legs she pushed the table over.

BANG, the sound caused the whole room to shake.

Chat Noir was able to break the lock with his super strength. He squeezed through the door and the desk, and in an instant he was at her side.

"Marinette are you okay? How are you holding up?"

He held her up as she tried to sooth her heart. The loud bang sending her heart and her nerves on over drive.

She tried to get ahold of herself, taking shallow breaths, wiping dried blood from her mouth.

"I'm okay, but we need-"

"Who's in here? Hello?"

A timid voice sounded from the doors.

Marinette locked eyes with Chat Noir, panic setting into both of them.

"We need to get out of here right now." Marinette whispered, pointing to the large window. "Do you think we can-"

Chat Noir cut her off, scooping her body into her arms. She moaned as his hand made contact with her side. Chat Noir made a sorry face but he was already running, charging shoulder first into the glass wall.

Marinette heard the glass shatter, and all warmth from the room evaporated. Glass crystals floated around them and the cold invaded her body. They were falling, quickly.

She clutched Chat Noir's neck as tightly as she could, ignoring all the agony her body screamed back at her. They ate up the air and wind whipped at her hair. Only thirty stories up in the air but it felt like they were falling from space. They seemed to be in the air forever before Chat Noir used his staff to slow their descent to the ground.

Marinette wasn't sure how they got to the ground because she only remembered half of the incident. She must have passed out briefly.

When she came back to, Chat Noir was staring at her with those bright green eyes. Large, clear and shining. She couldn't help the smile of relief that tugged at her lips again.

He was a live.

She ignored the replayed memory of the light leavening his eyes. That was an illusion, she reminded herself. All fake, this was real.

"Marinette, I'm going to take you to the hospital okay? Just hold tight."

Chat Noir was on the move before Marinette had a chance to get a word out. Her body felt heavy, like moving cinderblocks. But she struggled in his arms, forcing him to stop and let go of her.

He had stopped in a dark alleyway, letting Marinette out of his arms. She pressed up against a cold brick wall, the cold seeping in through her clothes. It helped clear her head, she had to think carefully about their next move.

Paris was completely dark, twilight long over. She could see the TVi station loom over their heads.

"You can't take me to the hospital, that will be the first place he looks for us. Think about it, where would you go to look for your injured prisoners? Just..." Marinette bit her lip, looking away from his pleading eyes. He was going to fight her on this, she already knew. "I think we should separate here, you can detransform and go home…"

Chat Noir's face hardened, a his mouth pressed into a firm line. Marinette avoided eye contact, rubbing her arm. His eyes were cold and his demeanor closed off.

He took a step back, turning away from Marinette. She was shocked, this wasn't what she was expecting.

Chat Noir clenched his fists, his shoulders starting to shake. Marinette's head started to throb again, Chat Noir's body heat suddenly gone, she was shivering.

"I get it," His voice was flat, "I should just get out of the way. You and Ladybug will handle this, right? Handle this whole situation with a plan you won't even tell me."

Chat Noir scoffed, walking away from Marinette.

"Wait!" Marinette shouted out, reaching out for him. "I didn't mean it like that-!" She cried out, her legs giving out from under her.

She landed face first into the gutter. She let out a small yelp, hissing at the tearing pain going off in her body. Cold concrete helping her bring her focus back, along with feeling every sensation going on in her body. She spit out a some old blood left in her mouth.

"It's not like that," She pushed herself up to her elbows, "please come back, I didn't mean it like that…"

Marinette looked away from Chat Noir's back. She knew she messed up, this whole situation was messed up. She didn't understand why Chat Noir said that he should get out of the way, it wasn't like that. Their relationship wasn't like that. She needed him, but she also wanted to protect him.

She was just saying that they should split ways so he detransform so he would be safe to go home. If he was with her then he would be slowed down and caught for sure. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if he got kidnapped again because of her.

She felt tears come to her eyes, a sob growing at the back of her throat. Marinette couldn't do anything right today. She had thought she had lost Chat Noir today, but she was really going to lose him right here, right now and it's her own damn fault.

A pair of warm hands picked her aching body off the street. She stared back up at those shinning green eyes, but they were sad. He pulled her close to her chest and he looked away, slowly heading towards Marinette's house.

Marinette sniffled, wiping at her tears with her bad arm. She tried to ignore the scorching pain, she was angry with herself. She was angry that she was this injured, that she let herself get to this point. She was helpless without Chat Noir. She wasn't sure what she would ever do without him. And she had almost pushed him away from her.

She whipped at her tears again, flinching as another series of tremors racked her body. She breathed through clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry." Chat Noir didn't look down at her.

Marinette looked away from Chat Noir, letting her tears run down her face.

She was such a screw up.

Chat Noir walked in silence, sticking to the shadows and alleyways. He would peek around corners to make sure the coast was clear but it was slow going.

It seemed like forever before Chat Noir spoke again.

"I…" The words were caught in his breath, he cleared his throat, trying again. "I'm not mad at you Marinette, I'm sorry I acted like that back there. It's nothing personal it's just I…"

He stopped walking, Marinette looked up at him, eyes wide. She could see his face. He seemed angry but, also hurt.

"I'm confused, why would Ladybug ask you to do something so dangerous? What exactly were you trying to do? Don't you think we are terrorists like the rest of Paris? I just don't understand…" Chat Noir shook his head but then walked on.

Marinette let the silence grow, Chat Noir was demanding answers. And she didn't blame him, she would to. She wondered briefly about exposing herself and saving herself the effort to come up with another lie. But her common sense kicked in. She just needed to get out of this and get home.

Where she would have to come up with another lie about how she got all her injuries.

She groaned. Was this her fate? To lie to everyone around her until she found herself so deep that no one believed a word that she said?

Exposing herself to Chat Noir was never so tempting then in that moment.

"Ladybug and I met a few months ago, remember when she asked you to save me from the Evillustrator? I knew that you guys could have never done something so horrible. So when Ladybug came to me this afternoon, asking for help, of course I said yes. Especially since she said you were in trouble..." Marinette paused, swinging her legs in Chat Noir's grip. She felt a blush burn her face. She hoped all of her bruises hid her embarrassment. "because…You're my hero Chat Noir…"

Chat Noir froze. Marinette burned, she had let that little bit of truth slip out. She stammered, trying to backtrack.

"I mean, like you're everyone's super hero but like I um, just think that you and Ladybug-"

"Am I really your hero?" Chat Noir stared back down at her face, he clutched her closer to his chest.

His warmth permeated every inch of her body and Marinette's heart was starting to go into overdrive again. These were those moments were she couldn't help how nervous she got around her partner.

His intensity startled her, but slowly, she nodded.

A huge grin broke out on his face and Marinette's body went from ice to fire. She looked away, trying to control herself. Calm down Marinette, get ahold of yourself.

Chat Noir had a skip in his step for the rest of the trip to Marinette's house.

* * *

Chat Noir placed Marinette's feet gently onto her garden rooftop. She slowly let go of Chat Noir, stumbling, her legs asleep, nettles dancing up and down her legs. He caught her in his arms again, she mumbled a thanks as he led her to her bedroom latch. He opened it for her to go inside, that dumb smile still on his face.

Marinette's face burned, his hands lingering on her skin. She couldn't help the way she heated up when he made contact with her. And she couldn't control her body's reaction to what she was going to say next.

"Would…would you like to come inside?"

Chat Noir blinked rapidly, choking on his own words. He fumbled with the latch, trying to be as quiet as possible but it rattled in his hands, slipping from his grasp, it thunked open.

"Uh, yeah, sure." He whispered back, looking away and coughing into his fist, trying to hide his face.

Marinette climbed into her bedroom first, holding her left arm to her chest. She jumped onto her bed, falling butt first. She moved to the side, making room for Chat Noir to slink in and close the latch silently behind him.

Her bedroom was dark, again the only thing she could see was his luminescent green eyes.

She didn't realize she was staring at him until he cleared his throat.

Marinette snapped out of her daze, embarrassed. She reached over to the wall at the head of her bed and flipped her lights on.

They were both blinded, squinting to adjust to the exposure. In this lighting she could see the growing bruise on Chat Noir's temple. It was ugly, dark and looked awfully painful. She made a note to herself to grab him some ice before he leaves.

She climbed over her bed sheets made her way over to the latter, climbing down very slowly. Only using her right hand to keep her balance, she ignored the way her knees shook with every ladder rung she stepped down.

"Be careful Marinette, you're shaking like crazy." Chat Noir grabbed the top of the latter to keep it steady.

She looked up at him and gave him a half hearted smile, "Thanks."

Marinette reached the bottom and Chat Noir began his descent down. She watched him as his hands slid over the latter she touched every day, how his costume seemed so out of place in her room but at the same time she didn't really mind it.

Shaking her head, she snapped herself out of her daze. Glancing over at her alarm clock, she read the time. 10:13pm, it wasn't too late but if felt like it was an eternity since she had been in her room.

Chat Noir stood next to her on the floor. He stared at her face, snapping her out of her thoughts again.

"What?" Marinette asked, "Does it really look that bad?"

Chat Noir grimaced, "I wouldn't say it looked…good…"

Marinette's eyes widened, she ran over to her vanity, checking her reflection in the mirror.

Not good as an understatement. She could see a black eye forming, she had a scratch on her brow, dried blood all around her mouth and one hell of a bruise forming on her chin were Valentine kicked her in the jaw. Her hair was a mess, one of her pigtails had fallen out and the other was pulled at an odd angle. Her shirt was covered with blood, it splattered her arms and face. She turned her head back and forth, immediately noticing bruises the shape of handprints around her neck.

That was the one that made her the most unsettled.

She turned away from the mirror, holding herself. She was able to forget about Valentine while she was in Chat Noir's arms but her face was a living reminder of the pain he inflicted on her.

He knew who she was. He knew Ladybug was Marinette. And if he knew it, so did Hawkmoth.

Her legs gave out from under her and she collapsed in front of her vanity table. She held her hand to her mouth, trying to keep in the sob threatening to come out.

Chat Noir dropped the book he was inspecting and rushed to her side, "Marinette, what's wrong?" He gripped her shoulders, making her look at him. "Did you hurt yourself? Tell me, what hurts? Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?" His hysteria grew with every question till he looked like he was about to burst.

"N-no…" She hid her face with her good hand, trying to control her emotions. She needed to think rationally, there had to be something she could do, something that could be done to keep her safe from him. He was going to come back to her and he was really going to kill her. He was going to kill her slowly and draw it out and-

A violent sob escaped her body and her breath turned erratic. She was having a panic attack and she knew she needed to calm down but she couldn't stop the burning sense of worry that consumed her body.

"Marinette!" Chat Noir was lost, he had no idea what to do. She was in shock and she was hyperventilating. "Tell me what's wrong."

"He knows me…" She gasped out, her tears streaming down her face. She grabbed Chat Noir's arm, squeezing it. "He knows who I am and he's going to come after me…"

"Marinette, you need to calm down." Chat Noir picked Marinette up and sat her down on her desk chair. He grabbed her by her shoulders and made eye contact with her, holding his eyes with hers. She tried to calm down, she really did. But then she saw him over her again, punching her, choking her. Another fresh wave of hysteria would follow.

Chat Noir looked around the room, looking for anything that would calm her down. He got up and pulled all the blinds closed. He looked over at Marinette, seeing if that helped any but she was still hyperventilating. Chat Noir had no idea what he could do to console her. He had no experience in consoling other people before, especially those who just been attacked by their worst nightmare. He looked back over at her, her breath only speeding up. Her eyes darted around the room, tears streaming down her face. He had never seen his classmate like this before. Even after she had been thrown into the closet with him she was calm and composed. Ready to form a plan and rational. But now she was a mess, and he was helpless to help her. She just needed to calm down, slow down her breathing…

He kneeled down in front of her, putting his hands around her face he made her look at him.

"Breathe with me," Chat Noir took a deep breath, closing his eyes he held it for a moment, then let it go out through his nose. He looked back at Marinette with a small smile on his face, his eyes begging her to calm down. "ready? It's easy, just breathe with me."

Marinette nodded, trying her best to follow along. It took a few tries but her sobs finally calmed and her breath returned to normal.

But that feeling of dread still brewed in her stomach.

"Are you feeling better?" Chat Noir asked hesitantly.

Marinette nodded, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He collapsed to the floor, lying on his back.

"Thank God, that was the most stressful thing I've ever done."

She couldn't help the smile that cracked out of the corner of her mouth.

But she had to go back to business, she needed to do something to distract her before her panic had the chance to take over her again. Looking down at herself, her white t-shirt was covered with blood and her hair was a mess. She needed to clean herself up and get changed. That was the first thing she needed to do. The second was to investigate the pain in her side, and third was to get Chat Noir some ice for that lump was forming on his head. Then she would worry about Valentine and Hawkmoth.

The one good thing about being the baker's daughter was that her parents went to sleep ridiculously early. Normally around 8 to 9pm, so she knew they were already in bed. She just had to be careful not to make any loud noises. Her parents were pretty heavy sleepers but she wasn't about to risk it.

She took a shaky step over Chat Noir, heading over to her closet to grab her pajamas. Chat Noir sat up, sitting cross-legged, he watched her walk across the room.

"Are you okay still?" He asked.

Marinette turned around to him and shushed him, holding her finger to her mouth. "My parents are asleep, they think I'm hanging out with Alya at TVi working on a project with her."

She turned back to her closet and kept digging through her clothes with her good hand, but she scoffed, "Dear god, what am I could to tell them what happened to my face?" She mumbled to herself, pulling out a pair of sweatpants and a oversized t-shirt

"You could say you got in a fight?" Chat Noir whispered, watching Marinette move from her closet to her changing screen.

"I'll probably say I got mugged," She tossed her shoes to the side, pulling her jeans off slowly with one hand. "I mean I could just say I was coming home late and met a shady character, you know same old story. I put up a fight but he messes me up pretty good, he got away, yadda yadda. "

Chat Noir watched the screen with keen eyes, letting his tired eyes go half lidded. Adrien's adrenaline was running out and he was feeling all of the events of the day catch up with him. He tried to think about everything that had happened today, he had gotten Ladybug's number (he still couldn't believe that happened), managed to escape Natalie and Gorilla after school, sneak into TVi, get kidnapped, find his classmate in an almost impossible situation, then jump out of a window thirty stories up in the air. And now he was here, in his classmate's room, exhausted, head pounding. This day felt like an eternity and Adrien couldn't wait for it to be over.

Chat Noir closed his eyes, leaning against the chaise lounge. He wasn't sure why he was still here but couldn't bring himself to leave. And if he was perfectly honest with himself, he was grateful for Marinette to serve as his distraction. He knew darker thoughts and memories were just waiting to ambush him when he was alone. He could feel them brewing in the back of his mind, getting sucked into them whenever he got too deep into his thoughts. Screams, feelings of worthlessness, guilt-

"Ow!" Marinette cried out, trying to muffle her shout with her hand.

Chat Noir's eyes snapped open and he was up in a second, walking towards the changing screen cautiously.

"Marinette, are you okay?" He stopped short of the screen, careful not to get to close. His face burned, "Do you need help?"

"Ugh, um, so, uh….yeah." Marinette whispered quietly.

She slowly emerged from behind the screen, she had one arm in her oversized t-shirt but the other was against her chest.

Marinette's face burned bright red, approaching Chat Noir slowly. She had scrubbed the blood spots off her face and had pulled her pigtails out and brushed her hair. It occurred to Adrien he had never seen Marinette with her hair down before.

"I can't pull my arm through the arm hole, Valentine…uh…" She looked away, and Chat Noir face instantly drew firm at the mention of his name.

"What happened Marinette."

"Well, uh…" She scratched the back of her head with her good arm, letting out a nervous chuckle. "I got pretty beat up but he kicked me in the chest and it just hurts really bad-"

"Can I see it?"

Marinette stared at him, blinking a few times.

She looked down her shirt, she hadn't taken off her bra but she had caught a glimpse of the bruise when she had peeled off her old shirt. It didn't look good but she doubted she had any broken ribs. She would just ice it.

"It's okay, I think I'll be okay it's just a bruise-" Marinette started to chuckle, but flinched. It hurt to breathe in or out to quickly or deeply, or really just hurt whenever she moved.

Chat Noir moved her over to her chaise lounge. She sat down, letting Chat Noir hover over her. She rolled her eyes, he was such a worry-wart.

Adrien did have some experience when it came to injuries, it was not uncommon in fencing to get bruises all over his body. Natalie had made it very clear to his coach that he couldn't bruise anywhere on his face or arms for work but everything else was fine. He remembered one tournament that he wasn't allowed to participate in last month, his team mate had been badly injured. He didn't tell anyone and went on and ended up breaking his wrist. After that the team had been trained all in first aid, recognizing concussions and CPR.

"Marinette, can I look at it?" He asked again, crouching next to her legs.

Marinette wasn't sure she was comfortable letting Chat Noir see her half naked, the bruise was pretty high up on her side. But this was Chat Noir she was dealing with, even if he wasn't dealing with Ladybug she knew he would never do anything to hurt her.

And besides, this whole situation was distracting her from the panic sitting in her stomach.

Slowly, she nodded. Grabbing the edge of her shirt with her good hand, she pulled her shirt up to her shoulder. Slowly she lifted her left arm to reveal the bruise and a good portion of her lavender bra. Her face flushed and ground her teeth, her side in agony.

She didn't dare look down at it, but from the sharp intake of breath from Chat Noir she could tell it wasn't good.

She could feel his the ever so light touch, his sharp claws dragging over her skin. She tried not to flinch, clenching her fist.

"Well, you could have a broken rib but I doubt it because you're not having trouble breathing or coughing anything up, but it's bruised badly." Chat Noir helped Marinette pull her shirt back down, helping her pull her left arm through her t-shirt. "Do you have any ice? It will help a lot with the swelling."

Marinette's face was flushed. She pulled her shirt down as far as it could go.

"Uh, yeah…I can go get it just give me a second."

Before Chat Noir could protest she got up from the chaise lounge, scrambling to the catch down stairs. She opened it, not bothering to close it behind her. She descended the stairs quickly, trying to ignore Chat Noir's head peaking out from her room.

She quickly made her way to her refrigerator, grabbing two bags of frozen vegetables. She placed one under her left arm, pushing it against her bruise, she sighed in instant relief. She put the other in her mouth, climbing the stairs as quickly as she could, using her good hand to grab the railing.

She closed the hatch behind her as softly as she could. Chat Noir was waiting for her, sitting quietly on the floor. She threw the bag of frozen green beans from her mouth at him. He caught it easily with one hand.

"What's this for?"

"You ya dummy, I'm not the only one who left with some bruises." Marinette rolled her eyes, grabbing the frozen veggies from his hands and placing it against his temple.

Chat Noir smiled gratefully at her, sighing in relief as the ice met with his bruise.

"Ah, I almost forgot about that." He grabbed the bag from Marinette, his fingers brushing hers.

She let go quickly, drawing back. He was doing it again, making her feel weird and confused. She ignored her feelings and sat down a few feet across from him, leaning up against the wall.

They sat there in silence for a few moments, icing their injuries. Marinette pulled her bag of frozen vegetables from her side after her side began to go numb and started to ice her eye.

"So, uh…" Marinette was lost for words. She couldn't think of anything to say anymore, her long day was beginning to catch up with her and she suppressed a yawn.

They were silent for a few moments more until Chat Noir spoke up, breaking the stalemate.

"…Are you scared?" Chat Noir pulled his knees against his chest, resting his head on the chaise lounge.

"Yes," Marinette didn't even have to think about it, "terrified actually."

"Me too."

"…When I close my eyes…" Marinette looked away from Chat Noir, she couldn't believe she was telling him this. It must have been because she was so tired to think rationally. "I see him, over me, choking me …I'm terrified he's going to find me and kill me this time…"

Marinette kicked herself, she shouldn't be telling him this.

"I know exactly how you feel. I can still hear his voice when it's quiet…"

Marinette was taken back for a moment, she hadn't anticipated Chat Noir would be so willing to talk to Marinette about what happened to him. She had thought Ladybug and Chat Noir were the only ones to share a strong enough bond to confide in each other.

She knew if she had more energy she would over analyze this moment more and find a reason to be mad but she just didn't have the energy.

"The truth be told…I'm terrified what when you leave he's going to show up and take me. I'm scared what my mind is going to show me…" Marinette couldn't stop her eyes from closing, but instead of replaying what happened to her again, it was only darkness. She felt relief, her aching body finally able to relax. "…but when you're here…I don't see it…"

Chat Noir didn't answer back.

Marinette's eyes fluttered open and he was watching her with tired eyes, his head still pressed against his frozen green beans.

"...Would you stay here for awhile?" Her voice was just a whisper, she knew that if this day hadn't happened she would have never asked for a boy to stay in her room. But she was afraid what awaited her when he left. She couldn't stand the thought of being alone with her own thoughts.

Chat Noir smiled gently.

"Sure."

So, making sure all of her blinds on her windows were shut tightly, she climbed into her bed. Flipping the lights off from her light switch by her bed, darkness filled her room. The only light came from her alarm clock in her desk.

Chat Noir lay on her chaise lounge with a thick wool blanket she had pulled from her bed. She had needed it recently with the chilly weather, but her room felt warm and toasty for the first time in forever.

Once Marinette turned out the lights she felt Tikki cuddle up to her face, she had been stuck in Marinette's bag this entire time, and Marinette kicked herself. She didn't dare talk to Tikki, Chat Noir had super hearing. So she hugged her Kwami back, and slowly settled into peaceful sleep.

* * *

Ugh, so glad that that scene is over, I'm ready to get Marinette back to school and release more hell upon them! Hahahaha!

Okay, so I didn't really read over this chapter for spelling mistakes because I really just wanted to get it up as quickly as possible so forgive me if anything is like, ridiculously misspelled.

Oh Marichat, I love you so.

I'mma be honest, I don't plan on revealing identities anytime soon. I love the weird situations that they get into and the turmoil. But that doesn't mean that there won't be a lot of suspicion later on :D

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